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Phcenicia  and  Israel. 


%  Historical  feag. 


BY 

AUGUSTUS  S.  WILKINS,  M.A., 

FELLOW   OF   UNIVERSITY   COLLEGE,   LONDON  J    LATE  SCHOLAR   OF   ST.    JOHN'S 
COLLEGE,   CAMBRIDGE  J   PROFESSOR  OF  LATIN  IN 


7ro?t,vfiepcJg  Kal  7ro?\,VTp67vcog. 


NEW  YORK: 
KELSON    &    PHILLIPS. 

CINCINNATI:  HITCHCOCK  &  WALDEN. 

1874. 


4. 


TO   THE   RIGHT   REVEREND 

THE  LORD  BISHOP  OF  MANCHESTER 

THIS    ESSAY   IS    BY   PERMISSION 

DEDICATED  ; 

ONE   OF   THE   LEAST   AMONG   THE   MANY   TOKENS 

OF   THE   PROFOUND    RESPECT   AND 

SINCERE  ATTACHMENT  WHICH    HIS    WORDS    AND    WORK 

HAVE   SECURED    FOR   HIM 

AMONG  THE   NONCONFORMISTS   OF   HIS   DIOCESE. 


■\^ 


This  Essay  obtained  the  Burney  Prize 
in  the  University  of  Cambridge  for 
the  Year  1870. 

The  late  Richard  Burney,  Esq.,  M.A.,  of 
Christ's  College,  Cambridge,  previously  to  his 
death  on  the  30th  November,  1845,  empow- 
ered his  Cousin,  Mr.  Archdeacon  Burney,  to 
offer,  through  the  Vice-Chancellor,  to  the  Uni- 
versity of  Cambridge,  the  sum  of  ^"3,500  Re- 
duced Three  per  Cent.  Stock,  for  the  purpose  of 
establishing  an  Annual  Prize,  to  be  awarded  to 
the  Graduate  who  should  produce  the  best 
Essay  on  a  subject  to  be  set  by  the  Vice- 
Chan  cellor. 

On  the  day  after  this  offer  was  communicated 
to  the  Vice-Chancellor,  Mr.  Burney  died  ;  but 
his  sister  and  executrix,  Miss  J.  Caroline  Bur- 
ney, being  desirous  of  carrying  her  brother's 
intentions  into  effect,  generously  renewed  the 
offer. 

The  Prize  is  to  be  awarded  to  a  Graduate  of 
the  University,  who  is  not  of  more  than  three 
years'  standing  from  admission  to  his  first 
degree  when  the  Essays  are  sent  in,   and  who 


viii  The  Burney  Prize. 

shall  produce  the  best  English  Essay  "on  some 
moral  or  metaphysical  subject,  on  the  Existence, 
Nature,  and  Attributes  of  God,  or  on  the  Truth 
and  Evidence  of  the  Christian  Religion."  The 
successful  Candidate  is  required  to  print  his 
Essay ;  and  after  having  delivered,  or  caused  to 
be  delivered,  a  copy  of  it  to  the  University 
Library,  the  Library  of  Christ's  College,  the 
University  Libraries  of  Oxford,  Dublin,  and 
Edinburgh,  and  to  each  of  the  Adjudicators  of 
the  Prize,  he  is  to  receive  from  the  Vice-Chan- 
cellor the  year's  interest  of  the  Stock,  from 
which  sum  the  Candidate  is  to  pay  the  expenses 
of  printing  the  Essay. 

The  Vice-Chancellor,  the  Master  of  Christ's 
College,  and  the  Norrisian  Professor  of  Divinity, 
are  the  Examiners  of  the  Compositions  and  the 
Adjudicators  of  the  Prize. 

In  the  event  of  the  exercises  of  two  of  the 
Candidates  being  deemed  by  the  Examiners  to 
possess  equal  merit,  if  one  of  such  Candidates 
be  a  member  of  Christ's  College,  the  Prize  is  to 
be  adjudged  to  him. 

The  subject  proposed  by  the  Vice-Chancellor 
for  the  year  1870  was — The  Influence  of  the 
Phoenicians  on  the  Political,  Social,  and  Religions 
Relations  of  the  Children  of  Israel. 


PREFACE. 


The  following  Essay  cannot  pretend  to  be  a 
complete  discussion  of  the  subject  of  which  it 
treats.  This  is  so  vast,  and  in  many  points  so 
obscure,  involving  as  it  does  many  of  the  most 
perplexed  and  disputed  questions  of  ancient 
history,  culture,  mythology,  and  religion,  that 
it  might  furnish  a  worthy  theme  for  scholars  of 
the  most  extensive  learning  and  the  greatest 
intuitive  sagacity.  And  the  present  volume 
appears  under  special  disadvantages.  Written 
in  the  midst  of  other  pressing  duties,  where  no 
good  library  of  modern  theological  works  was 
available  for  reference,  and  composed  very 
hurriedly  under  the  restrictions  as  to  time  im- 
posed by  the  conditions  of  a  University  compe- 
tition, it  is  now  printed,  in  accordance  with  the 
University  regulations,  precisely  as  it  was  sub- 
mitted to  the  adjudicators,  with  the  exception  of 
verbal  corrections  and  a  few  additional  references. 


x  Pre/ace. 

But  there  are  two  considerations  which  diminish 
the  reluctance  with  which  I  allow  this  Essay  to 
appear.     I   believe  it  is  the   only   work  of  the 
kind  in  English  (and  as  far  as  I  know  in  French 
or  German)  which  aims  directly  at  gathering  in 
a  focus  the  scattered  rays  of  light  that  we  have 
from  many  quarters  upon  one  of  the  most  power- 
ful influences  that  tended  to  mould  the  character 
of  the  Chosen  People.     And  I  think  that,  though 
many   authorities,    which    I    should    have   been 
glad  to  consult,  were  inaccessible  under  the  cir- 
cumstances in  which  the  Essay  was  written,  those 
that  have  been   employed  have  been  the  most 
complete  and  trustworthy.    M.  Renan's  "  Histoire 
des  Langues  Semitiques"  appears  to  leave  little 
to  be  desired  in  its  own  department.     And  the 
great  work  of  Movers,  without  whose  constant 
aid  I  should  never  have  attempted  this  subject, 
is  a  complete  repertory  of  all  that  up  to  the  date 
of  its  publication  (1841 — 1856)  had  been  learnt 
about    Phoenicia.     The    following   pages   would 
not,    I    hope,    be   without   their   value,    if  they 
only  rendered    more   accessible   to   students  of 
history  and  theology  the  main  results  to  which 
his  vast  erudition  and   unwearied  industry  have 
led  him.     To  supplement  his  researches,  I  have 
had   recourse   in   many  places  to   the  works   of 
Professor  Rawlinson  and  M.  Lenormant,  but  not 


Preface.  xi 

without  a  certain  amount  of  distrust,  felt  often 
when  it  has  not  been  expressed.  It  would  be 
of  course  ridiculous  to  depreciate  the  value  of 
the  recent  attempts  to  decipher  the  cuneiform  in- 
scriptions. But  those  scholars  who  have  under- 
taken to  weave  the  fragmentary  Assyrian  records 
into  a  consecutive  history  seem  to  have  lost 
sight  far  too  often  of  the  golden  canon  of  the 
historian  : — 

v(t(\)i  k<u  fxifxvaa  <i7rirrTi7)>  '  apuparavra  rav  (f>ptv<jjv. 

In  their  eagerness  to  leave  nothing  unex- 
plained,  nothing  uncertain,  they  appear  some- 
times to  be  building  on  the  slightest  foundations. 
It  is  easy  to  understand  the  temptation  to  sub- 
stitute assertion  for  suggestion;  but  when  one 
or  two  palpable  instances  of  the  operation  of 
this  tendency  have  been  discovered,  a  serious 
blow  is  inflicted  on  the  confidence  of  the 
reader.  Fortunately,  the  guidance  of  such 
authorities  is  needed  mainly  on  points  less 
immediately  connected  with  the  present  sub- 
ject ;  and  their  theories,  however  uncertified,  are 
not  likely  to  lead  us  far  wrong  in  our  principal 
conclusions. 

A  word  or  two  may  be  added  as  to  the 
interest  of  the  questions  discussed  in  this  Essay. 
I    should  be   sorry  to  subscribe   to  the  doctrine 


xii  Preface. 

of  a  distinguished  Professor,  that  the  study  of 
history  is  mainly  valuable  as  casting  light  upon 
the  political  problems  of  the  present  day.  I  do 
not  suppose  that  Cicero  was  thinking  only  of 
the  needs  of  a  statesman  when  he  wrote,  "  Nes- 
cire  quid  antea  quam  natus  sis  accident,  id  est 
semper  esse  puerum."  If  we  are  to  have  a 
scientific  study  of  history,  that  study  must  be 
pursued,  as  the  study  of  any  other  branch  of 
knowledge,  purely  from  a  love  of  truth,  unac- 
companied by  any  merely  utilitarian  considera- 
tions ;  for  thus  alone  can  we  be  preserved  from 
wresting  the  facts  to  suit  our  preconceived  ideas, 
and  from  searching  for  what  we  fancy  should  be, 
rather  than  for  that  which  is  the  truth. 

Oh,  if  we  draw,  a  circle  premature 

Heedless  of  far  gain, 
Greedy  for  quick  returns  of  profit,  sure 

Bad  is  our  bargain  ! 

Let  us  rather,  like  the  patient  scholars  of  old, 

Earn  the  means  first — God  surely  will  contrive 
Use  for  our  earning. 

But  one  lesson  seems  to  lie  on  the  surface  of 
such  a  discussion  as  the  present.  Many  people 
are  distressed  and  alarmed  at  the  growing  ten- 
dency to  assimilate  the  history  of  the  Jews  to 
that  of  other  ancient  nations  ;  to  eliminate  the 


Preface.  xiii 

miraculous,  wherever  it  is  possible  to  do  so ;  and 
to  regard  the  earlier  portions  of  their  annals  as 
largely  imbued  with  the  mythical  element.  This 
is  not  the  place  to  discuss  how  far  this  tendency 
is  in  the  direction  of  juster  views.  But  may  it 
not  be  largely  for  good,  if  it  leads  us  to  dwell 
rather  upon  the  points  in  which  the  Jews  re- 
sembled other  nations,  than  upon  those  on  which 
they  differed  from  them  ?  Do  we  not  gain 
rather  than  lose  by  considering  Israel  as  a  typi- 
cal instead  of  an  exceptional  people  ?  Miracles 
are  often  spoken  of  as  violations  of  the  order  of 
nature :  they  are  far  rather  revelations  of  the 
true  order  of  nature — glimpses  given  us  for  a 
moment  of  the  living  Power  that  is  working  for 
our  blessing  under  the  guise  of  a  regular  se- 
quence of  phenomena,  but  independent  of  and 
far  transcending  all  phenomenal  manifestation. 
And  as  the  feeding  of  the  five  thousand  lifts 
for  us  the  veil  that  hangs  over  the  daily  feeding 
of  the  thousand  millions  of  living  men,  so  the 
inspired  record  of  the  training  of  Israel  for  the 
advent  of  the  Lord  is  merely  the  key  to  the 
right  apprehension  of  the  training  of  Rome,  of 
Greece,  and  of  Germany,  for  the  part  they 
should  have  in  the  Church  of  Christ.  And  if 
we  hold  fast  to  this  central  truth  of  history,  as 
revealed  to  us  first  in  the  Hebrew  prophets,  and 


xiv  Preface. 

afterwards  expanded  to  its  full  proportions  in  the 
teaching  of  St.  Paul,  it  will  matter  to  us  little  if 
the  researches  of  modern  criticism  shall  show  us 
that  the  living  faith  of  the  former  in  the  Divine 
teaching  and  guidance  was  mixed  with  some- 
thing of  error  as  to  its  extent  and  the  modes  of 
its  manifestation.  The  Old  Testament  becomes 
to  us  not  less,  but.  rather  much  more  precious 
when  we  find  its  records  revealing  to  us,  not  an 
isolated  instance  of  favouritism,  but  a  typical 
instance  of  the  training  of  all  the  families  of 
men  for  the  coming  of  the  Light  and  Life  of 
the  world.  The  aim  of  this  Essay  will  be  fully 
reached  if  it  should  be  found  to  help  any  to  see, 
from  a  fragment  of  one  of  its  strands,  some- 
thing of  the  beauty  of  the  golden  cord  that 
binds  into  one  great  whole  the  changeful  history 
of  the  tribes  of  man. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   I. 


PAGE 

Introduction       ......  1 


CHAPTER   II. 

Historical    Sketch     of    the     Relations 

between  phcenicia  and  israel  .         .         26 

CHAPTER   III. 

The  Influence  of  Phoenicia  upon  Israel, 

Political  and  Social  ....&& 

CHAPTTER   IV. 

The    Religion   of  Phoenicia,  and   its   In- 
fluence upon  Israel  .         .         .         .       136 


PHCENICIA   AND    ISRAEL. 


CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Aryan  and  Semitic  Migrations — Early  Semitic  Population  of 
Canaan — Language  substantially  the  same  as  Hebrew — 
Character  of  the  Population — The  Descent  into  Egypt — Its 
Date. 

r^HE  earliest  glimpses  that  we  are  able  to 
-*-  gain  of  primitive  history,  show  us  the  two 
great  stocks  from  which  the  civilization  of  the 
world  has  proceeded,  in  process  of  migration 
from  their  original  abodes.  From  the  uplands 
of  central  Asia,  to  which  all  converging  testi- 
mony1 seems  to  point,  as  the  home  of  the 
Aryan  race,  the  streams   that  were  to  fertilize 

i  Gathered  well  by  Pictet :  "  Les  Aryas  Primitifs,"  vol.  i., 
Paris,    1859  ;    and   by  A.    Kuhn  in  Weber's    "  Indische  ' 
Studien,"  vol.  i. 


2  Phoenicia  and  Israel. 

the  regions  of  Europe  and  of  Indo-Persian  Asia 
seem  to  have  taken  their  rise.  The  former 
poured  on  its  western  way,  throwing  off  as  it 
went  the  branches  which  developed  into  the 
Sclavonic,  the  Teutonic,  the  Greek,  and  the 
Italian  peoples ;  and  finally  bore  the  Keltic 
tribes  to  the  utmost  limits  of  the  West.  The 
latter,  diverging,  after  some  indefinite  lapse  of 
time  from  the  early  days  when  the  stream  that 
was  the  first  to  leave  its  home  had  been  severed 
from  it,  took  its  course  partly  to  the  south-west, 
to  people  the  land  of  Iran,  partly  to  the  south- 
east, to  the  country  of  the  five  rivers,  thence  in 
long  years  to  spread  over  the  whole  of  the  penin- 
sula of  India.  Or  perhaps  the  metaphor  would 
be  more  true  if,  instead  of  diverging  streams,  we 
spoke  of  successive  waves  following  each  other 
at  distant  intervals,  but  with  all  the  various 
sections  of  the  European  Aryans,  ever  pursuing 
a  westward  course.1  In  this  case  philology  is 
hardly  able  as  yet  to  decide  between  the  two 
expressions.      But   in   the  case  of  the   Semitic 

1  Schleicher's  Compendium,  p.  u.  This  philologer. 
however,  differs  from  most  other  good  authorities  by 
making  the  Slavo-German  family  break  off  from  the  main 
body  before  the  separation  into  Eastern  and  Western 
peoples,  or  Aryas  and  Yawanas. 


Introduction.  3 

peoples,  there  can  be  little  doubt  which  is  the 
more  correct.  We  find  no  traces  there  of  a 
movement,  embracing  at  first  the  whole,  or  even 
one  great  section,  of  the  original  stock,  and 
breaking  off  into  various  directions  as  isolated 
bodies  severed  themselves  from  the  general 
mass.  The  most  competent  authorities  teach 
us  rather  to  conceive  of  successive  waves  of 
population,  issuing  from  the  mountainous  country 
near  the  sources  of  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris, 
to  which  the  narrative  of  Genesis  points  as  the 
cradle  of  the  human  race,  and  to  which  the 
Mosaic  accounts  of  the  Deluge  bring  us  back 
as  the  centre  from  which  the  children  of  Noah 
went  forth  again  to  people  the  earth.  Of  all  the 
migrations  from  the  land  of  Kir  (Amos  ix.  7) 
to  the  regions  that  lay  south-west  of  it,  that 
which  is  of  the  greatest  importance  in  the  his- 
tory of  man  is  undoubtedly  the  one  with  which 
the  Bible  connects  the  name  of  Terah.  But  this 
was  so  far  from  being  the  first  of  the  movements 
in  this  direction,  that  it  is  much  more  likely  to 
have  been  the  last.1  The  anthropomorphic  lan- 
guage of  the  Mosaic  record  is  certainly  not  in- 
tended to  hinder  us  from  the  quest  of  secondary 
1  Renan,  "  Histoire  des  Langues  Semitiques,"  p.  28. 


4  Phoenicia  and  Israel. 

causes  for  the  change  of  abode,  which  it  ascribes 
to  the  direct  command  of  the  Deity.  It  was 
probably  partly  in  consequence  of  the  barren- 
ness of  the  upper  valley  of  the  Euphrates,  that 
rendered  it  little  fitted  for  the  home  of  a  pastoral 
tribe  ;x  partly  from  the  establishment  of  a  powerful 
non-Semitic  empire  upon  the  banks  of  the  Tigris,2 
leading,  according  to  an  old  tradition,  which  may 
be  accepted  in  its  general  meaning,  even  if  its 
details  bear  the  stamp  of  later  invention,  to  the 
persecution  of  those  who  clung  to  the  purer  faith, 
that  the  family  of  Abraham  found  its  way  into 
the  more  fertile  and  peaceful  land  of  Canaan.3 
But  the  same  causes  which  had  urged  him  on,  we 
may  believe  to  have  been  powerful  with  kindred 
tribes.  Other  branches  of  the  Semitic  stock, 
with  the  incapacity  for  military  organization 
which  seems  inherent  in  these  nomadic  children 
of  the  desert,  would  have  found  themselves  un- 
able to  withstand  the  overwhelming  numbers 
that  obeyed  the  commands  of  the  Cushite 
despots.      And    it   may  be  that,   whatever   the 


1  Lenormant,  "  Ancient  History  "  (E.  T.),  i.,  p.  So. 

2  Renan,  p.  33. 

3  Joseph.  Ant.,  r,  7,  1.     Cp.  Stanley,  "Jewish  Church," 
i.,  p.  17. 


Introduction.  5 

moral  and  religious  degradation  into  which  they 
afterwards  fell,  they  still  retained  enough  of 
this  primitive  monotheism,  to  induce  them  to 
shrink  with  horror  from  the  gross  idolatry  of  the 
barbarous  hordes  to  whose  power  they  were 
compelled  to  yield.  Be  this  as  it  may,  all  evi- 
dence that  we  have  confirms  the  supposition 
that  long  before  the  days  of  Abraham,  Semitic 
tribes  had  pressed  along  the  path  by  which  the 
Divine  guidance  was  to  lead  him,  to  the  land 
that  should  afterwards  be  possessed  by  his  de- 
scendants, as  the  sand  that  is  by  the  sea-shore 
for  multitude. 

Of  these  preceding  tribes  some  had  pushed  on 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  Promised  Land,  into 
the  yet  more  fertile  valley  of  the  Nile.  The 
best  recent  authorities x  teach  us  to  see  in  the 
Hyksos,  who  have  furnished  so  much  matter  for 
debate  to  historians,  "a  wave  of  Semitic  nomads, 
who  disturbed  for  a  time  Egyptian  civilization, 
and  finally  yielded  to  the  resistance  which  an 
organized  society  always  successfully  opposes  to 
undisciplined  force."2      But  many  remained   in 

1  Movers,  i.  32  ;  Renan,  p.  38,  and  the  authorities  there 
quoted  ;  Ewald,  L,  pp.  389,  399.     (E.  T.) 

2  Renan,  p.  38. 


6  Phoenicia  and  Israel. 

the  land  of  Canaan,  waging  apparently  ceaseless 
war  with  the  aboriginal  tribes,  the  Rephaim,  the 
Zamzummim,1  the  Emim,  and  the  Anakim,  but 
never  meeting  with  entire  success  until  the  work 
was  taken  in  hand  by  the  children  of  Israel, 
hardened  by  the  discipline  of  the  desert,  and 
strong  with  the  belief  in  a  Divine  "  Captain  of 
the  Armies  of  the  Lord." 

According  to  this  account,  Abraham,  on  his 
first  arrival  in  the  Land  of  Promise,  found  the 
population  consisting,  at  least  in  a  very  large 
measure,  of  tribes  with  which  he  would  have 
close  affinities  of  blood  and  language.2  This 
seems,  at  first  sight,  utterly  at  variance  with  the 
common  conception  of  him  as  a  solitary  wan- 
dering stranger  in  the  midst  of  strangers.3  And 
yet  the  evidence  would  appear  to  bear  it  out. 
For  in  the  first  place  we  have  not  the  least  hint 

1  Renan  seems  to  be  right  in  considering  this  an  onoma- 
topoetic  name  for  an  "  unintelligibly-speaking  people,"  like 
the  (3d.pj3a.poi  of  the  Greeks,  the  mlechha  of  the  Sanskrit- 
speaking  Aryans.  Cp.  M.  Muller  :  Lectures,  i.,  p.  83, 
with  note. 

2  Ewald,  i.,  p.  231. 

3  Herder  (Geist  der  Ebraischen  Poesie,  p.  318,  1st  ed., 
Dial,  x.)  finds  this  so  incredible  that  he  asserts  that  the 
Phoenicians  usurped  the  language  of  the  Jews,  probably 
for  the  sake  of  commerce. 


Introduction,  7 

in  the  Biblical  narrative  that  points  to  any 
difference  of  language,  such  as  we  often  have 
when  the  Jews  came  into  contact  with  nations 
whose  speech  was  really  unintelligible  to  them  ; 
as,  for  instance,  the  Egyptians  (Psalm  lxxxi.  5, 
cxiv.  1),  the  Assyrians  (Isa.  xxxvi.  11),  and  the 
Chaldees  (Jer.  v.  15).  On  the  contrary,  we  find 
Abraham  negotiating  with  the  children  of  Heth, 
Isaac  making  a  treaty  with  Abimelech,  king  of 
Gerar,  Jacob  and  his  sons  "  communing "  with 
the  people  of  Shechem,  without  the  slightest 
reference  to  the  need  of  any  interpreter  between 
them.  Again,  the  names  of  persons  and  places 
in  the  early  days  when  Abraham  first  visited 
the  land,  we  find  to  have  been  such  as  admit  at 
once  of  explanation  from  the  Hebrew  or  the 
Phoenician  language.  "  Melchizedek  "  is  "the 
King  of  Righteousness  ;"  "  Abimelech,"  "  the 
Father  of  the  King;'  "  Kirjath-sepher,"  "the 
City  of  the  Book,"  and  so  on.  A  suggestion  has 
indeed  been  made  that  these  are  only  Hebrew 
translations  of  the  original  forms ;  but  this  is 
sufficiently  disproved  by  the  analogy  of  similar 
cases,  where  wre  find  no  such  translation  to  have 
taken  place.  It  is  indeed  most  unlikely  that,  if 
the   nations    of   Canaan   had   spoken   a   dialect 


8  Phoenicia  and  Israel. 

essentially  different  from  that  of  the  Hebrews, 
the  latter  should  have  ever  understood  suffi- 
ciently the  meaning  of  the  proper  names  in  use 
among  their  neighbours,  to  have  translated  them 
into  names  of  corresponding  signification  among 
themselves.  But  the  most  convincing  proof  lies 
in  the  fact  of  the  clearly  demonstrated  identity 
of  race  between  the  Canaanites  and  the  Phoeni- 
cians. The  Biblical  account  in  Gen.  x.,  which 
makes  Sidon  the  first-born  of  Canaan,  is  abun- 
dantly confirmed  by  independent  evidence.  The 
Septuagint  frequently  renders  Canaan  and  Ca- 
naanite  in  the  Hebrew  by  Phoenicia  and  Phoeni- 
cian.1 S.  Augustine  tells  us  that  the  Carthaginian 
Phoenicians  still  retained  the  name  :  for  "  inter- 
rogati  rustici  nostri  quid  sint,  Punice  respon- 
dentes,  Canani,  corrupta  scilicet  sicut  in  talibus 
una  littera  (accurate  enim  dicere  debebant  Cha- 
nani)  quid  aliud  respondent  quam  Chananaei  ?  "2 
The  Phoenicians  seem  to  have  known  their  land 
by  no  other  name  than  Chna,  "the  low-lying"  ;3 
and  one  of  the  coins  of  Laodicea  still  extant, 

1  Kenrick,  p.  42,  note  3. 

2  Epist.  ad  Rom.,   §   12,  quoted  very  incompletely  by 
Kenrick,  p.  42. 

3  Movers,  ii.,  p.  6. 


Introduction .  9 

bears  the  inscription  "a  mother  in  Canaan."1 
Movers  has  indeed  succeeded  in  showing  that  the 
people  known  to  the  Hebrews  under  the  name 
of  Canaanites  did  not  form  one  united  nation, 
sharply  distinguished  from  the  surrounding 
tribes ;  that  the  appellation  had  originally  a 
geographical  rather  than  an  ethnological  mean- 
ing ;  and  that  the  district  over  which  it  extended 
was  peopled  rather  by  successive  immigrations 
than  by  one  united  invasion.2  Still,  all  this  does 
not  shake  the  conclusion,  to  which  we  are 
brought  by  very  much  evidence,  that  there  was 
such  a  similarity  in  language  between  the  Phoe- 
nicians and  the  rest  of  the    inhabitants  of  the 

• 

Promised  Land,  as  to  cause  the  Israelites  to 
apply  to  the  latter  generally,  a  name  which 
belonged  primarily  and  especially  to  the  former. 
Now,  as  we  shall  have  occasion  to  notice  at 
more  length  further  on,  there  cannot  be  the 
least  doubt  as  to  the  close  connection  between 
the  Phoenician  language  and  Hebrew.  They  be- 
long, not  only  to  the  same  family  of  languages, 
but  also  to  the  same  subdivision  of  it.  The 
testimony  of  two   of  the    Fathers,    S.   Jerome, 

1  Movers,  ii.,  pp.  n  (with  note  36)  and  120. 

2  ii.,  pp.  62 — 82. 


io  Phoenicia  and  Israel, 

himself  a  learned  Hebrew  scholar,  and  S.  Augus- 
tine, born  in  a  Punic-speaking  district,  is  con- 
firmed by  the  researches  of  later  scholars ;  and 
Hebrew  is  found  to  supply  the  key  to  the  Punic 
passage  in  the  Pcenulus  of  Plautus,1  to  the 
etymology  of  the  Phoenician  and  Carthaginian 
names  preserved  to  us,  and  to  the  Phoenician 
inscriptions  that  have  been  gathered  with  care, 
and  interpreted  with  vast  learning  and  brilliant 
intuitive  skill  by  Gesenius2  and  Movers.  The 
former  scholar  expresses  his  judgment  on  the 
language  of  Phoenicia  in  the  following  decided 
and  decisive  terms :  "  Omnino  hoc  tenendum 
est,  pleraque  et  psene  omnia  cum  Hebrseis  con- 
venire,  sive  radices  spectas,  sive  verborum  et 
formandorum  et  flectendorum  rationem." 

The  demonstration  of  this  substantial  identity 
between  the  language  of  Canaan  and  Hebrew, 
"  obviously  leads,"  in  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Twisle- 
ton,  "  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Hebrews  adopted 

i  Best  interpreted  by  Movers,  Phon.  Texte :  Erster 
Theil,  1845. 

2  "  Scripturae  Linguaeque  Phoenicia?  Monumenta," 
Leipzig,  1837. 

3  Mon.  Phcen.,  p.  335  (quoted  in  Diet,  of  Bible).  Of 
ninety-four  words  in  the  important  Marseilles  inscription, 
seventy-four  occur  in  the  Old  Testament. 


Introduction.  1 1 

Phoenician  as  their  own  language  j"1  and  Mr. 
Kenrick  says,  still  more  positively,  "  The  pro- 
genitors of  the  Jews  must  have  spoken  Syriac 
{i.e.,  Aramaean),  not  Hebrew,  that  is,  Canaanitic."2 
But  against  this  supposition,  maintained  by  some 
of  the  older  critics,  there  are  several  con- 
siderations which  ought  to  weigh  with  us.  In 
the  first  place,  nations,  especially  in  primitive 
times  when  difference  of  dialect  was  a  greater 
barrier  than  even  now,  are  rarely  found  to 
change  their  language,  except  for  one  of  the 
three  following  causes  :  it  may  be  from  con- 
quest, as  was  the  case  of  the  Gauls  when  they 
learnt  the  tongue  of  their  Roman  masters ;  it 
may  be  from  the  attractions  of  a  higher  civili- 
zation, as  with  the  Normans  when  they  adopted 
French  ;  it  may  be  the  result  of  close  social 
intercourse,  of  intermarriages,  and  of  the  neces- 
sities of  trade,  as  with  the  German  immigrants 
into  the  United  States  of  America.  But  none 
of  these  causes  are  found  in  the  case  which  we 
are  now  discussing.  Abraham  was  never  in 
subjection  to  any  of  the  surrounding  tribes; 
whatever  may  have  been  the  case  at  the  time  of 

1  Diet.  Bible,  ii.,  p.  863^ 

2  Phoenicia,  p.  49  ;  Renan,  p.  in. 


1 2  PJioenicia  and  Israel. 

the  invasion  of  Joshua,  they  do  not  seem  to  have 
attained  in  his  days  any  height  of  civilization 
superior  to  his  own  simple  pastoral  life ;  and 
this  prototype  of  the  Bedouin  sheik,  with  his 
herds  and  flocks,  and  his  three  hundred  and 
eighteen  trained  men  born  in  his  own  house, 
lived  a  free,  self-sufficing  life,  in  friendly  but 
apparently  in  slight  relations  with  the  neigh- 
bouring chieftains.  What  possible  inducement 
could  there  have  been  for  him  to  abandon  the 
language,  endeared  by  memories  of  worship  in 
his  early  and  distant  home,  and  to  adopt  that  of 
the  people  around,  with  whom  he  had  so  little 
intercourse  ?  And  the  probability  of  such  a  step 
decreases  with  every  expansion  of  the  original 
tribe-like  household.  It  is  much  more  natural 
to  suppose,  with  M.  Renan,1  that  Hebrew,  such 
as  we  have  it  now  in  the  Sacred  Volume,  was 
developed  in  the  course  of  the  prolonged  and 
intimate  contact  of  two  nations  speaking  dialects 
closely  resembling  each  other,  to  begin  with. 
But  this  once  established,  we  may  reasonably 
allow  that  of  the  two  the  language  of  the  children 

1  p.  112,  who  refers  to  Bertheau — "  Zur  Geschichte  der 
Israeliten,"  p.  179.  "Phoenician  may  be  called  a  tissue,  in 
which  Hebrew  forms  the  woof,  and  Syrian  [Aramaic]  the 
warp."  Bunsen,  Philosophy  of  Universal  History,  i.,  p.  244. 


Introduction,  1 3 

of  Israel  approached  the  more  nearly  to  the 
Aramaean,  such  as  it  was  afterwards  spoken  in 
the  region  from  which  Abraham  came,  and  that 
it  contributed  important  Aramaic  elements  to 
the  later  Biblical  Hebrew.1 

We  are  thus  brought  back  to  the  conclusion, 
already  stated,  that  when  Abraham  was  brought 
by  the  guidance  of  God  into  the  land  of  Canaan, 
he  found  himself  in  the  midst  of  a  population 
which  could  not  be  regarded  as  wholly  alien. 
Nor  do  the  inhabitants  appear  to  have  been  of 
a  character  which  would  repel  all  intercourse. 
They  had  already  abandoned,  at  least  to  a  cer- 
tain extent,  their  original  pastoral  and  nomadic 
habits,  and  we  find  them  gathered  together  into 
cities,  leaving  the  open  country  principally  to 
the  occupation  of  friendly  strangers,  such  as 
Abraham.  But  their  civilization  was  but  little 
developed  ;  for  good  and  for  evil,  they  seem  to 

1  According  to  Mr.  Kenrick  (Phoenicia,  p.  167,  note  3), 
"  Movers  (Ersch  and  Gruber,  Encycl.  Art.  Phonizien)  has 
collected  with  great  care  the  differences  between  the 
Phoenician  and  the  Bible  Hebrew,  and  finds  that  the 
former  leans  much  to  Aramaean  forms."  But  this  is  to 
be  explained  by  the  fact  that  the  specimens  of  Phoenician 
preserved  to  us  are  of  a  later  date  than  the  Hebrew. 
Both  languages  seem  to  have  passed  through  the  same 
Aramaising  process.     (Cp.  Renan,  Histoire,  p.  189.) 


14  Phoenicia  and  Israel, 

have  retained  much  of  their  primitive  character. 
Where  kings  are  mentioned,  they  approach  more 
nearly  to  the  patriarchal  heads  of  tribes  than  to 
the  barbarous  despots  of  later  days.  We  come 
across  no  traces  of  the  fearful  moral  corruption 
that  afterwards  made  "  the  land  spue  out '!  its 
inhabitants,  except,  indeed,  in  the  wealthy  and 
luxurious  Cities  of  the  Plain.  There  the  degene- 
racy that  was  afterwards  to  bring  the  Divine 
judgments  upon  all  the  nations  of  Canaan,  had 
rapidly  run  its  fatal  course.  But  the  rest  of  the 
land  was  still  comparatively  uncorrupted ;  in 
the  story  of  Dinah,  the  conduct  of  Shechem  and 
Hamor  displays  a  willingness  to  atone  for  the 
effects  of  overmastering  passion,  that  contrasts 
very  favourably  with  the  treachery  of  the  sons 
of  Jacob  ;  the  tone  of  the  court  of  Gerar,  in  the 
intercourse  of  the  king  with  Abraham  and  with 
Isaac,  appears  to  us  singularly  high  ;  and  the 
language  of  Ephron  the  Hittite  is  full  of  the 
most  graceful  Oriental  courtesv.  But  the  scene 
which  most  reveals  to  us  the  purity  of  religion 
and  morality  which  still  remained,  is  that  in 
which  the  Father  of  the  Faithful  met  the 
mysterious  figure  who  was  "  first  by  interpre- 
tation king  of  righteousness,  and  after  that  king 


Introduction.  15 

of  Salem,  which  is  king  of  peace."  Whatever 
spiritual  or  typical  meaning  we  may  consider 
ourselves  authorized  to  draw  from  the  narrative, 
its  primary  significance  undoubtedly  is,  that  in 
the  midst  of  the  ever-increasing  darkness  there 
was  one  at  least  whom  Abraham  acknowledged 
as  the  priest  of  the  Most  High  God.  And  even 
one  such  centre  of  light  cannot  have  been  with- 
out its  influences  in  staying  the  advent  of  the 
gloom  that  was  soon  to  cover  the  nations. 

With  the  journey  of  Jacob  and  all  his  house- 
hold to  join  his  sons  in  Egypt,  the  scene  of  the 
sacred  narrative  is  removed  from  Canaan ;  and 
when,  following  the  journeyings  of  the  chosen 
people,  we  are  brought  back  again  to  its  confines, 
the  change  that  has  passed  over  the  country  is 
indeed  surprising.  But  as  this  seems  partly  at 
least  to  have  arisen  from  the  action  of  foreign 
nations,  it  is  needful  that  we  should  first  turn 
our  glance  upon  these  for  a  moment. 

Our  subject,  fortunately,  does  not  require  us 
to  plunge  into  the  complications  of  Egyptian 
and  early  Jewish  chronology.  Numerous  and 
widely  differing  attempts  have  been  made  to  fit 
the  one  into  the  other,  but  a  just  caution  will 
lead  us  to  follow  the  example  of  the  late  Dean 


1 6  Phoenicia  and  Israel. 

Milman  (quern  honoris  causa  nomind)  in  refusing 
entire  assent  to  any.1  Still  numerous  slight 
indications  warrant  the  conjecture  that  the 
Pharaoh  with  whom  Abraham  was  brought  in 
such  friendly  relations  belonged  to  the  dynasty 
of  the  Shepherd  Kings.  The  absence  of  any 
reference  to  an  interpreter,  the  simple  Theism 
implied  in  the  recorded  expressions  of  the  king, 
and  the  hearty  and  courteous  welcome  given  to 
the  powerful  chief  of  the  nomad  tribe,  which 
seems  to  have  been  closely  connected  by  blood 
and  language  with  the  conquering  Hyksos  in- 
vaders, all  lead  us  to  the  same  conclusion.2 

When  we  come  to  consider  the  second  descent 
into  Egypt  under  Jacob,  the  condition  of  affairs 
is  greatly  changed.  The  imperial  splendours  of 
the  court,  the  power  of  the  native  priesthood, 
(always  repressed  and  discountenanced  under 
the  alien  dynasty),  the  suspicion  and  dread  of 
strangers,  especially  of  such  as  belong  to  a 
nomad  pastoral  tribe,  the  un-Semitic  character 
of  the  names  recorded  (as  demonstrated  by 
Lepsius),  all  combine  to  prove  that  the  intruders 

1  "  History  of  the  Jews,"  i.,  p.  102.  See  especially  the 
very  striking  passage  from  Bredow  quoted  in  the  prefatory 
note  to  Book  vi.  (p.  237,  last  ed.) 

3  Cp.  Ewald,  i.,  pp.  392 — 400. 


Introduction.  1 7 

had  been   by  now  expelled,  and  that  the  suc- 
cessors to  the   ancient  monarchs  had  regained 
the  throne.     On  the  other  hand,  it  seems  pretty 
certain    that    during    the    life    of  Joseph,  Egypt 
had  not  yet  entered   on  that  warlike  policy  of 
agression    an<^  conquest  that  carried    the   vic- 
torious  arms    of   Sethos  and   of  Rameses  over 
so  large  a  portion  of  Western  Asia.     We  shall 
therefore   be   probably   right   in   assigning    the 
entrance  of  the  children  of  Israel  into  the  land 
of  Goshen  to  some  point  within  the  period  that 
elapsed  between  the  expulsion  of  the    Hyksos 
dynasty,  and    the    accession    of  the   conquering 
nineteenth  dynasty.     If  this  be  correct,  the  re- 
lations of  Canaan  to  Egypt  will  come  out  clearly. 
During  the  greater  portion  of  the  time  in  which 
the  patriarchs  were  still  in  the  Promised  Land,  a 
friendly  but  independent  alliance  would  seem  to 
have    existed  between    them,  changed    towards 
the  end  by  the  expulsion  of  the  Shepherd  Kings 
into  a   feeling  of  strong  aversion,  which  some- 
times even  broke  out  into  open  hostilities.     M. 
Lenormant 1  has  brought  evidence  for  believing 
that  probably  with  the  approval  and  even  the 
assistance  of  the   reigning    eighteenth    dynasty, 

1  i.,  p.  92. 


1 8  Phoenicia  and  Israel. 

the  children  of  Israel  had  made  several  attempts 
to  win  for  themselves  the  land  promised  to  their 
fathers.  "  Thus  mention  is  made  of  an  expe- 
dition of  the  sons  of  Ephraim  against  the  people 
of  Gath,  whose  cattle  they  drove  off,  but  who 
slew  them  (i  Chron.  vii.  21).  A  daughter  of 
Ephraim  built  several  cities  in  the  land  of 
Canaan  (1  Chron.  vii.  24).  Lastly,  it  is  men- 
tioned that  the  family  of  Shelah,  son  of  Judah, 
had  made  conquests  in  the  territory  of  Moab 
(1  Chron.  iv.  21,  22)." 

This  is  only  part  of  the  general  policy,  the 
results  of  which  are  depicted  on  the  contem- 
porary monuments  of  Egypt.  There  we  find 
the  Egyptian  forces  constantly  engaged  in  the 
reduction  of  the  little  forts  of  the  petty  kings 
of  Palestine.1  But  rulers  like  Amenophis  and 
Thothmes  the  First  and  the  Third  do  not  seem 
to  have  cared  to  subdue  the  country  entirely ; 
they  were  satisfied  with  exacting  an  acknow- 
ledgment of  supremacy,  the  payment  of  tribute 
and  military  service.  The  main  struggle  appears 
to  have  been  with  the  Khita,  or  Hittites, — not 
that  comparatively  insignificant  tribe  whose 
capital   was    Kirjath-Arba,    but    a    much    more 

1  i.,  p.  228. 


Introduction.  1 9 

powerful  northern  branch,  which  extended  north 
of  Palestine  from  the  Euphrates  to  the  sea. 
We  cannot  doubt  that  the  heavy  blows  inflicted 
on  this  Canaanitish  empire  by  the  conquering 
kings  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  and  still  more 
by  the  monarchs  who  succeeded  it,  proved  of 
essential  service  in  lightening  the  task  that 
afterwards  lay  before  the  army  of  Joshua.  An 
Egyptian  poet  of  the  time  puts  these  exalted 
words  into  the  mouth  of  Amen,  the  Theban 
sun-god  : — 

I  am  come — to  thee  have  I  given  to  strike  down  Syrian 

princes. 
Under  thy  feet  they  lie  throughout  the  breadth  of  the 

country. 
Like  to  the  Lord  of  light,  I  made  them  see  thy  glory, 
Blinding  their  eyes  with  light,  the  earthly  image  of  Amen. 

The  accession  of  a  king  "who  knew  not 
Joseph  "  apparently  denotes  not  only  a  change 
of  dynasty,  but  also  a  change  of  policy.  The 
measures  of  Joseph  seem  to  have  been  directed 
mainly  to  the  development  of  the  resources  of 
the  country,  especially  by  the  encouragement  of 
agriculture  in  the  fertile  expanse  of  Lower  Egypt. 
But  if  we  are  right  in  assigning  his  viceroyalty 
to  the  time  of  one  or  other  of  the  two  great 
kings   that  bore  the  name  of  Thothmes,  Dean 


20  Phoenicia  and  Israel. 

Milman   can   hardly  be  correct  in  speaking  of 
the  policy   of  this   reign    as   pacific,1   and    con- 
trasted   sharply   with   the    splendid    Rameseid 
period  of  war.     There  is  no  reign  of  this  epoch 
whose   monumental    records    do   not  supply  us 
with  long  lists  of  conquered  tribes  and  nations. 
He  is  more   happy  in  the  stress  he  lays  upon 
the  increasing  importance  of  Thebes  under  the 
nineteenth  dynasty,    as    denoting   a  diminished 
concern  for   the  peaceful  development  of  agri- 
culture.    But  the  cause  of  the  change  of  policy 
he   does   not   dwell   upon :    M.  Lenormant   has 
advanced  a  theory  of  it,  which  seems  to  be  more 
than    an    ingenious    conjecture.2      The    close  of 
the   eighteenth    dynasty  was   marked   by  great 
religious  disturbances  :  Amenhotep  IV.,  a  prince 
whose  physiognomy  differs  strangely  from  that 
of  the  other  Egyptian  kings,  made  a  determined 
attempt  to  change  the  religion  of  the  country, 
and  to  establish  in  the  place  of  the  polytheism 
hitherto  universal,  the  worship  of  a  single  god — 
A  ten — represented   under  the  form  of  the  sun's 
disc,   and   possibly   identical  with   the  Hebrew 
Adonai.     Is  it  inconceivable  that  the  children  of 
Israel,  now  wonderfully  increased   in   numbers, 
1  i.,  p.  112.  2  i.,  p.  238. 


Introduction.  2 1 

and  led  perhaps  by  some  one  who  had  an  in- 
fluence at  the  court  of  the  Pharaoh  similar  to 
that  afterwards  won  by  Daniel,  Mordecai,  and 
Nehemiah  at  the  court  of  Persia,  should  have 
contributed  largely  to  this  imperfect  mono- 
theism ?  The  monumental  evidence  of  Tell-el- 
Amarm,  the  new  capital  of  Amenhotep,  tends 
to  confirm  this  supposition.  The  chronology 
exactly  coincides,  on  the  hypothesis  which  we 
have  adopted  throughout.  And  when  the  dis- 
orders were  at  last  suppressed,  and  a  new  and 
vigorous  dynasty  established,  what  could  be 
more  natural  than  a  fierce  persecution  directed 
against  the  nation  which  had  shown  itself  strong 
enough  already  to  shake  to  the  foundation  the 
beliefs  and  the  worship  of  the  country  ?  To  the 
bitterness  of  religious  animosity,  the  jealousy  of 
national  antipathy  was  shortly  added.  The 
Egyptian  dominion  in  Syria  was  seriously 
threatened  by  the  great  confederacy  of  the 
Khitas,  now  formed  into  a  single  monarchy  ;  the 
Canaanites  of  Palestine  were  naturally  attracted 
to  them  by  community  of  race,  and  were  eager 
to  throw  off  all  dependence  upon  Egypt ;  the 
children  of  Israel  were  probably,  as  we  have 
seen  above,  closely  connected  with  the  Canaan- 


22  Phoenicia  and  Israel. 

ites  ;  and  nothing  is  more  natural  to  suppose 
than  that  this  connection  should  have  greatly 
increased  the  suspicion  with  which  they  were 
regarded  by  the  Egyptians.  We  can  readily  be- 
lieve that  Rameses  II.,  during  the  severe  struggle 
which  was  needed,  as  we  know  from  the  monu- 
ments, before  he  could  make  any  sort  of  peace 
with  this  powerful  people,  exercised  all  manner 
of  severities  upon  the  Hebrews  in  the  land  of 
Goshen,  with  the  very  purpose,  ascribed  to  him 
in  the  Bible,  "  lest  they  multiply,  and  it  came  to 
pass,  that  when  there  falleth  out  any  war,  they 
join  also  unto  our  enemies,  and  fight  against  us." 
The  struggle  in  the  north  of  Canaan,  with  very 
important  effects  to  be  afterwards  discussed, 
which  had  filled  so  large  a  portion  of  the  reign 
of  Seti,  was  terminated  by  a  peace,  upon  some- 
thing like  equal  terms,  early  in  the  reign  of 
Rameses,  and  the  fifty  years  of  quiet  that 
followed  were  occupied  with  the  extensive  build- 
ing which  proved  such  a  burden  to  the  children 
of  Israel.  "  In  all  the  monuments  of  Rameses, 
there  is  hardly  a  stone,  so  to  speak,  which  has 
not  cost  a  human  life.1  The  calm  judgment  of 
history  confirms  the  stigma  fixed  on  him  by  the 

1  Lenormant,  i.,  p.  257. 


Introduction.  23 

Bible."  "And  it  came  to  pass  in  process  of 
time  that  the  king  of  Egypt  died :  and  the 
children  of  Israel  sighed  by  reason  of  the  bond- 
age, and  they  cried,  and  their  cry  came  up  unto 
God  by  reason  of  the  bondage."  The  nineteenth 
dynasty  marks  the  Augustan  age  of  Egypt  j1 
but  it  closes  in  gloom  and  darkness.  "  Not  only 
have  the  stately  structures  ceased  to  arise,  the 
expanding  walls  to  be  decorated  with  processions 
of  tribute-bearing  kings  and  nations,  but  there 
is  a  significant  silence  in  the  existing  monu- 
ments :  the  names  and  titles  of  their  kings,  in 
their  characteristic  cartouches,  are  no  longer 
lavishly  inscribed  upon  them ;  but  there  are 
signs  of  erasure,  of  studious  concealment,  as  of 
something  which  they  would  shrink  from  com- 
mitting to  imperishable  memory.  Some  disaster 
seems  to  have  fallen  upon  the  realm,  which. 
rather  than  commemorate,  the  records  break  off 
and  are  mute."2  The  solution  of  this  mystery  is 
furnished  only  by  the  Mosaic  narrative.  Mi- 
renptah  or  Amenophis,  the  son  of  the  great 
oppressor,  had  hardened  his  heart,  and  refused 
to   let   the   children    of  Israel  be  led   forth  by 

1  Rawlinson's  Herodotus,  it,  p.  304. 

2  Milman,  L,  p.  118. 


24  Phoenicia  and  Israel. 

the  hand  of  Moses  and  Aaron.  But  the  time 
had  come  for  mercy  and  for  judgment :  the  sins 
of  those  who  held  the  Land  of  Promise  were 
crying  aloud  for  punishment ;  the  events  of 
centuries  had  been  paving  the  way  for  its  occu- 
pation by  the  Chosen  People  ;  and  "  God  heard 
their  groaning :  and  God  remembered  His  cove- 
nant with  Abraham,  with  Isaac,  and  with  Jacob, 
and  He  saved  them  from  the  hand  of  him  that 
hated  them,  and  redeemed  them  from  the  hand 

of  the  enemv." 
•> 

In  this  sketch  of  the  sojourn  of  Israel  in 
Egypt,  needful  to  show  the  influences  that  were 
moulding  the  Canaanite  tribes,  I  have  followed 
in  the  main  Dean  Milman  (whose  view  does  not 
differ  much  from  those  of  Bunsen,  Brugsch,  and 
other  excellent  authorities),  though  not  without 
a  careful  consideration  of  the  schemes  of  Lenor- 
mant,  Poole,  and  Wilkinson.  The  first  of  these 
supposes  that  Joseph  was  taken  into  favour  by 
one  of  the  shepherd  kings  ;  but  the  reasons 
already  adduced  seem  sufficient  to  disprove  this. 
Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson  (with  Ewald)  makes  the 
Exodus  to  happen  towards  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth    dynasty.      But   it   is    inconceivable, 


Introduction.  25 

if  this  were  the  case,  that  even  in  the  very 
fragmentary  state  of  the  history  given  us  by  the 
books  of  Joshua  and  Judges,  we  should  find  no 
allusions  in  them  to  the  numerous  invasions  of 
Canaan  by  Seti  and  Rameses  II.  Mr.  Poole's 
theory,  which  places  both  the  arrival  of  Joseph 
and  the  Exodus  within  the  period  of  the  Hyksos 
kings,  seems  to  present  more  difficulties  than  any 
other.  The  theory  of  Lepsius,  which  places  the 
arrival  of  Abraham  after  the  accession  of  the 
eighteenth  dynasty,  has  not  received  the  ad- 
hesion of  any  scholar  of  note  in  England,  France, 
or  Germany. 

Canon  Cook,  in  an  Essay  on  the  Bearings  of 
Egyptian  History  upon  the  Pentateuch  (in  the 
"  Speaker's  Commentary,"  vol.  i.,  pp.  443 — 475), 
published  since  this  essay  was  written,  contends 
that  not  only  the  visit  of  Abraham,  but  also  the 
migration  under  Jacob,  is  to  be  placed  before 
the  invasion  of  the  Hyksos  kings,  and  that  the 
Exodus  took  place  under  Thothmes  II.  (of 
the  eighteenth  dynasty).  There  is  very  much 
evidence  in  favour  of  this  view,  but  it  does  not 
seem  to  me  on  the  whole  preferable  to  that 
which  has  here  been  adopted. 


26 


CHAPTER  II. 

HISTORICAL   SKETCH   OF  THE   RELATIONS 
BETWEEN   PHOENICIA  AND   ISRAEL. 

Canaan  at  the  time  of  its  Conquest — Extent  of  the  Conquest — 
Relations  with  the  Phoenician  Cities  under  the  Judges — 
Under  the  Kings — Histoiy  of  Tyre  up  to  the  Captivity  of 
Judah. 

"  T  has  been  said  above,  that  we  find  a  great 
**-  change  had  passed  over  the  land  of  Canaan 
between  the  departure  of  Jacob  and  the  invasion 
of  Joshua.  The  revolution  had  no  doubt  been 
slow,  but  its  effects  were  very  visible.  Like  the 
Hebrews  themselves,  the  Canaanites  had  been  a 
purely  pastoral  people,  but  now  they  were  de- 
veloping agriculture  ;  the  vine  and  the  olive  were 
already  widely  cultivated,  and  fenced  cities  were 
common.1  A  similar  change  was  seen  in  their 
political  relations  to  each  other.    The  kings  with 

1  Milman,  i.,  p.  219. 


Tribes  of  Canaan. .  2  7 

whom  Jacob  met  were  still  the  patriarchal  heads 
of  tribes.  In  the  time  of  Joshua  we  find  either 
local  princes,  taking  their  titles  from  the  cities 
that  were  the  centres  of  government,  or  else,  as 
in  the  case  of  Gibeon,  an  aristocratic  republic 
already  established.1  The  art  of  war  had  greatly 
developed,  and  in  the  course  of  the  continual 
wars  in  which  these  tribes  were  engaged,  either 
against  the  Egyptian  invader,  or  under  his  ban- 
ners, against  their  powerful  Khita  brethren  of 
the  north,  abundant  experience  had  been  gained. 
It  is  difficult  to  say  whether  the  war-chariot  was 
brought  to  them  from  Egypt,  or  whether  it  was 
not  rather  their  original  possession,  and  was 
communicated  to  the  Egyptians  by  the  shepherd 
kings.  It  is  certain  that  the  horse  is  never  re- 
presented on  any  sculpture  of  a  date  prior  to  the 
Hyksos  dynasty.2  Be  this  as  it  may,  their  horses 
and  chariots  very  many  seem  to  have  proved  at 
this  time  their  main  reliance  in  war.  But  the 
independent  spirit  of  the  Semitic  race,  always 
averse  to  organization,  and  never  forgetting  that 
its  true  centre  was  the  tent  and  the  tribe,3  kept 
the  various  Canaanite  nations  severed  from  each 

1  Ewald,  i.,  p.  241.  3  Renan,  p.  13. 

2  Rawlinson's  Herodotus,  ii. 


2  8  Historical  Relations. 

other,  each  in  a  defiant  isolation,  yielding  but 
incompletely  even  to  the  terror  of  a  foreign  in- 
vasion.1 We  find  the  numerous  cities  of  the 
land,2  excluding  such  as  were  still  held  by  the 
warlike  and  savage  aborigines,  loosely  grouped 
into  four  main  divisions.3  There  are  the  Amorites, 
or  Highlanders,  a  fierce  people  (apparently  the 
farthest  removed  from  the  Canaanites  proper) 
"  that  dwelt  in  the  mountains,4  from  the  Scorpion 
Range,  south  of  the  Dead  Sea,  to  the  hills  of 
Judah.  The  Hittites  are  their  neighbours, 
dwelling  in  the  valleys,  lovers  of  refinement  at 
an  early  period,  and  living  in  well-ordered  com- 
munities possessing  national  assemblies."5  The 
fertile  lowlands  by  the  course  of  the  Jordan,  and 
along  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean,  are  held  by 
the  Canaanites,6  who,  as  possessors  of  the  choicest 
of  the  land,  and  by  far  the  best  known  to 
foreigners,  often  gave  their  name  to  the  whole  of 

1  Lenormant,  ii.,  p.  151. 

2  The  thirty-one  cities  that  are  mentioned  in  Joshua 
xii.  9,  24,  do  not  include  even  all  that  we  have  mentioned 
in  the  course  of  the  book.     (Ewald,  ii.,  p.  231,  sq.) 

3  Ewald,  i.,  pp.  234—237. 

4  Joshua  x.  6,  cp.  Deut.  i.  44. 

5  Ewald,  11.  s. 

6  On  xapa~v  —  terra  depressa,  from  the  verb  y^,  cp. 
Movers,  ii.,  p.  6. 


Tribes  of  Canaan.  29 

the  population  of  the  country.     These  also  were 
much  more  addicted  to  commerce  than  to  war, 
in  this  resembling  the  fourth  main  division,  the 
Hivvites  (Ewald)  of  the  midland  region,  whose 
principal  city  seems  to  have  been  the  flourishing, 
wealthy,  but  timorous  Gibeon.     Every  hint  that 
we  have  points  to  a  high  state  of  civilization  as 
already  existing  \x    but   this  was    accompanied 
with  the  grossest  moral  depravity.     A  fitter  oc- 
casion will  be  afterwards  found  (in  the  section  on 
the  religious  influence  of  Phoenicia)  for  discussing 
the  causes  that  led  to  this  condition.     It  is  suf- 
ficient now  to  notice  that  the  Biblical  narrative 
always  uses  the  strongest  language  in  speaking 
of  the  frightful  degradation  of  the  Canaanites,2 
which  made  the  Lord  to  abhor  them  ;3  and  which 
was   at   once   the   necessary  and   the   sufficient 
reason   for  the    merciless    destruction    that    the 
children  of  Israel  were  commanded  to  bring  upon 
them.4 

One  other  nation  in  the  land  of  Canaan  seems 

1  See  especially  Bochart's  remarks  on  Kirjath-Sepher, 
"  The  City  of  Books,"  and  Keil  on  Joshua  x.  38. 

2  Lev.  xviii.  3,  xx.  23. 

3  Deut.  ix.  5,  xii.  31,  etc.,  etc. 

4  The  absolute  need  for  such  terrible  severity  has  been 
often  showed  by  Christian  apologists,  against  the  cavils 


30  Historical  Relations. 

to  have  possessed  already  at  least  a  portion  of 
the  district  that  afterwards  bore  its  name.     The 
uncertainty  which,  after  all  that  has  yet  been 
done  by  the  scholars  of  Germany,  still  perplexes 
our  views  of  the  early  ethnology  of  the  Land  of 
Promise,  is  nowhere  so  great  as  in  the  case  of 
the   Philistines.      But,   on  the  whole,  the  frag- 
mentary hints,  which  are  all  that  we  have  upon 
the  subject,  seem  to  point  to  the  conclusion  that, 
even  at  the  time  of  the  Exodus,  the  southern . 
coast  of  Palestine  bore  already   the    name   of 
Philistia,  and   even  then  was   not  without  those 
fortress  cities  that  afterwards  formed  the  nucleus 
of  the  strength  of  the  Philistines.1     But  in  these 
early  times  they  seem  to  have  been  but  weak, 
and  under  the  yoke  of  the  alien  Canaanites,  to 
whom  they  were  always  bitterly  hostile.2     And 
even  after  the  days  of  Joshua,  though  strength- 

of  unbelievers  ;  but  never  more  forcibly  than  by  Arnold, 
Sermons,  vol.  vi.,  pp.  35 — 37. 

1  Ewald,  i.,  p.  245. 

2  We  shall  have  occasion  to  notice  afterwards  the  heavy 
blows  that  they  inflicted  on  the  power  of  Sidon.  By 
using  the  term  "  alien,"  I  do  not  mean  to  imply  my  assent 
to  the  theory  of  Hitzig  ( Urgescliichte  und  Mytliologie  der 
Philistcier,  Leipzig,  1845),  who  finds  in  the  Philistines  an 
offshoot  of  the  Pelasgi.  His  arguments  do  not  seem  to 
me  at  all  convincing,  and  unless  M.  Stark, — whose  Fors- 


Philistines.  3 1 

* 

ened  by  numerous  immigrants  from  their  earlier 
home  in  Crete,  they  broke  their  power  by  dashing 
fruitlessly  against  the  vastly  superior  forces  of 
Egypt,  then  ruled  by  Rameses  III.1  It  was  not 
till  the  rapid  decline  of  the  Egyptian  power  had 
left  them  free  from  even  a  nominal  supremacy, 
that,  aided  again  by  fresh  accessions,  they  were 
able  to  establish  themselves  securely,  and  reta- 
liate in  full  measure  for  all  the  oppression  that 
they  had  endured.  At  the  time  of  the  invasion 
of  Joshua  they  probably  formed  but  a  small  por- 
tion of  the  composite  population  of  the  southern 
coast  land,  the  greater  part  of  which  was  consti- 
tuted by  the  peaceful  agricultural  Avvim,  and 
the  numerous  but  unaggressive  and  commercial 
Canaanites.2 

Such  was  the  general  distribution  of  the 
various  earlier  inhabitants,  when  the  children  of 
Israel  crossed  the  borders  of  the  Land  of  Pro- 
mise. There  is  no  occasion  for  us  to  review  the 
several   stages   of  the   invasion    and    conquest. 

chungen,  referred  to  by  M.  Lenormant  (i.,  p.  123),  I  have 
not  been  able  to  consult, — has  others  of  greater  force 
to  bring  forward,  it  appears  much  safer  to  follow  Ewald 
and  Movers  in  considering  them  a  Semitic  people.  Le- 
normant follows  Hitzig. 

1  Lenormant,  i.,  p.  124.  2  Ewald,  i.,  p.  248. 


3  2  Historical  Relations. 

But  one  point,  which  has  been  often  overlooked, 
deserves  a  passing  glance.  The  strategy  of  the 
leader  of  "  the  host  of  the  Lord  '  (Jahveh)  was, 
consciously  or  unconsciously,  of  the  highest 
order.  Had  the  attack  been  made  upon  the 
southern  frontier,  the  invaders  would  have  found 
before  them  an  ever-increasing  mass  of  enemies, 
and  the  successive  mountain-ranges  of  Hebron, 
of  Jerusalem,  and  of  Ephraim.  But  when  the 
Jordan  was  crossed  near  Jericho,  that  frontier 
fortress  captured,  and  the  passes  secured  by  the 
ambuscade  that  destroyed  the  city  of  Ai,  Joshua 
was  able  to  drive  his  army  like  a  wedge  into  the 
very  heart  of  the  hostile  country,  and  strike  his 
blows  right  and  left  at  the  isolated  divisions  of 
the  enemy.1 

The  battles  of  Beth-horon  and  of  Merom 
crushed  the  two  great  combinations  of  the 
Amorite  and  the  Hittite  kings,  and  the  suc- 
cess of  the  invasion  was  secured.  But  six  or 
seven  years  of  fighting  left  the  work  but  half 
accomplished.  Many  of  the  strongest  posts  in 
the  country  still  remained  in  the  hands  of  the 
Canaanites,  and,  curiously  reversing  the   usual 

1  See  Stanley,  i.,  p.  237,  and  M.  Chevallier  in  Lenor- 
mant,  i.,  p.  in. 


The  Conquest  of  Canaan.  33 

Canaanites,  and,  curiously  reversing  the  usual 
issue  of  an  irruption  of  invaders  that  show 
themselves  the  stronger  in  battle,  the  plains 
continued  to  be  held  by  their  earlier  occupants. 
The  enthusiasm  of  the  Hebrew  people  for  the 
land  in  which  their  fathers  were  buried,  the 
lonmnpf    of    the    desert-hardened    warriors1   for 

o       o 

"the  good  land,  the  land  of  brooks  of  water, 
of  fountains  and  depths,  that  spring  out  of 
valleys  and  hills  ;  the  land  of  wheat  and  barley, 
and  vines  and  fig-trees  and  pomegranates  ;  the 
land  of  oil  olive,  and  honey  ;"  their  firm  belief 
that  the  LORD  their  God  was  leading  them  into 
the  possession  of  this  beautiful  home, — all  these 
influences  tended  to  make  their  onset  irresistible. 
The  rude  weapons  and  primitive  tactics  of  the 
children  of  Israel  swept  before  them  the  serried 
and  confederate  masses  that  followed  the  Ca- 
naanitish  kings.  But  such  an  invasion  could 
hardly  be  more  at  first  than  a  razzia.2  We  have 
reason,  indeed,  to  suppose  that  in  the  panic 
caused  by  the  first  great  victories  of  Joshua,  the 

1  On  the  results  of  the  desert  training  there  are  words 
well  worth  noting  in  Mr.  Baldwin  Brown's  "  Soul's 
Exodus,"  pp.  322 — 326. 

2  Ewald,  ii.,  p.  241. 


34  Historical  Relations. 

Canaanites  on  all  sides  gave  in  their  submission  ; 
and  it  is  probable  that  even  Sidon,  "  the  eldest- 
born  of  Canaan,"  did  not  refuse  to  pay  homage 
to  the  conquering  invaders.  At  least  we  find 
that  afterwards  the  rightful  territory  of  Israel 
is  assumed  to  extend  over  Sidon  and  its  sur- 
rounding cities.1  But  if  there  was  ever  a  tem- 
porary submission,  its  effects  were  very  transient ; 
and  we  find  the  inhabitants  of  Phoenicia  proper 
"living  quiet  and  secure,"1  undisturbed  by  the 
neighbouring  tribes  of  Israel.2  They  had  now 
been  settled  for  a  lon^  time  in  the  cities  of  the 
coast.  We  are  able  to  determine,  with  tolerable 
exactness,  the  date  of  their  arrival  there  by  the 
help  of  one  of  the  most  curious  and  valuable 
documents  that  have  been  given  to  the  world 
in  the  progress  of  hieroglyphic  interpretation. 
A  hieratic  papyrus,  translated  by  M.  Chabas, 
contains  the  report  of  an  Egyptian  officer,  sent 
by  Amenembe  I.,  a  king  of  the  twelfth  dynasty, 
to  examine  into  the  condition  of  the  princi- 
palities of  Edom  and  Tennu,  then  dependent 
on  Egypt,  and  to  bring  back  information  upon 
the  neighbouring  tribes  ;  and  it  admits  of  proof 
that  none  of  the  nations  mentioned  in  this  most 
1  Judges  i.  31.  -  Judges  xviii.  7. 


Origin  of  the  Canaanites.  35 

interesting  document  belonged  to  the  Canaanite 
race.1 

On  the  other  hand,  on  the  arrival,  of  Abraham 
in  the  Land  of  Promise,  we  find  that  "  the 
Canaanite  and  the  Perizzite  then  dwelt  in  the 
land,"2  a  form  of  expression  from  which  we  may 
probably  deduce  that  they  had  not  long  been 
there.  Whence  they  came,  is  another  of  the 
points  much  disputed  by  the  best  authorities. 
All  the  native  traditions  that  are  preserved  to 
us  of  course  represent  them  as  autochthonous  ; 
but  when  we  find  this  the  case  with  people  like 
the  Greeks,  who  can  be  shown  most  clearly  to 
be  immigrants,3  such  statements  cannot  weigh 
very  much  in  the  balance  of  the  historian.  The 
Greek  authorities  are  unanimous  in  pointing  to 
the  banks  of  the  Erythraean  Sea,  or  Persian 
Gulf,  as  the  original  home  of  the  nation.4  The 
close  analogy  in  many  respects  between  the 
religion    and    civilization    of  Phoenicia    and    of 

1  Lenormarut,  ii.,  p.  148.  2  Gen.  xiii.  7. 

3  On  this  point  the  theories  of  Dr.  E.  Curtius  (see 
especially  i.,  pp.  62 — 64,  of  Prof.  Ward's  translation)  de- 
serve very  careful  consideration. 

i  Movers,  ii.,  1,  pp.  38 — 48.  The  Bishop  of  Ely  (on 
Gen.  x.  6)  confuses  the  Erythrseum  Mare  with  the  modern 
Red  Sea. 


36  Historical  Relations. 

Babylon,  each  partaking  of  a  very  marked 
Cushite  character,  is  evidence  in  the  same 
direction.  M.  Renan's  conclusion  is  that  the 
Phoenician  people  were  the  first  to  issue  from 
the  common  cradle  of  the  Semitic  race, — that  is, 
the  mountains  of  Kurdistan, — and  that  it  was 
in  the  fertile  plains  of  the  lower  Euphrates 
that  they  developed  a  civilization  which  in 
its  departure  from  the  simpler  manners  and 
purer  life  of  their  pastoral  brethren,  made 
them  afterwards  the  objects  of  their  exe- 
cration.1 M.  Lenormant  contents  himself  with 
tracing  them  to  the  basin  of  the  Euphrates, 
and  ascribes  their  expulsion  thence  to  the  Aryan 
invasion  of  Babylonia,  just  at  the  time  to  which 
other  evidence  points  as  the  date  of  their  invasion 
of  Palestine.2  Movers,  on  the  contrary,  accepts 
the  tradition  that  their  earliest  settlements  were 
on  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean  ;  but  his 
arguments  do  not  appear  convincing,  and  he 
is  throughout  disposed  to  assign  far  too  much 
weight  to  uncertain  deductions  from  an  obscure 
mythology  ;  and,  on  the  whole,  we  may  agree 
with  Mr.  Kenrick  that  in  favour  of  the  statements 
of  Herodotus,  Justin,  and  Strabo,  "we  have  a 
1  Renan,  p.  186.  2  ii.,  pp.  23 — 48. 


Stock  of  the  Canaan  i 'tes.  37 

body  of  evidence  which  it  would  not  be  safe  to 
set  aside."1  The  stock  to  which  they  belonged 
is  another  perplexing  question,  which  cannot 
probably  be  set  at  rest  until  we  have  arrived  at 
something  more  like  agreement  as  to  the  terms 
to  be  employed  in  ethnology.  The  Biblical  ac- 
count in  Genesis  x.  places  them  among  the  de- 
scendants of  Ham,  while  the  language  that  they 
spoke  is  evidently  Semitic.  The  difficulty 
vanishes  if  we  may  suppose,  with  Mr.  Kenrick, 
.that  the  classification  in  Genesis  is  based  upon 
colour,  which  would  prevent  the  red  Phoenicians 
from  being  ranked  with  the  paler  Semites.  And 
we  can  easily  understand  then  how  Canaan 
should  be  held  to  be  the  brother  of  Mizraim,  if 
we  remember  how  constantly  the  Egyptian 
monuments   preserve   the   marked  difference   of 

1  Phoenicia,  p.  52  ;  cp.  the  preceding  pages.  Professor 
Rawlinson  (Herodotus,  Book  vii.,  App.  iL)  accepts  the 
tradition  of  an  immigration  of  the  Phoenicians,  but  places 
it  as  late  as  the  thirteenth  century  B.C.  This  must  stand 
or  fall  with  his  rejection  of  the  identity  of  the  Phoe- 
nicians and  the  Canaanites  ;  the  only  authorities  for  the 
view  that  has  here  been  maintained  which  he  discusses 
are  Bochart  and  Kenrick  ;  but  he  has  also  to  deal  with 
Gesenius,  Movers,  Bunsen,  Ewald,  Renan,  and  Lenor- 
mant,  a  consensus  of  authority  which  is  not  easily  shaken, 
and  which  Dr.  Dyer  (in  Diet.  Geog.)  and  Mr.  Twisleton 
are  content  to  follow. 


3  8  Historical  Relations. 

tint  between  the  native  warriors  and  their  Semitic 
enemies.  Knobel  and  Hitzig  (quoted  by  Renan, 
p.  52,)  attempt  to  confirm  this  view  by  the  ety- 
mology of  the  names  Shem,  Ham,  and  Japhet, 
but  apparently  with  little  success.  It  is  perhaps 
better,  with  M.  Renan,  to  regard  the  table  of 
nations  in  Genesis  as  simply  geographical.  One 
of  the  principal  difficulties  in  ancient  ethnology 
arises  from  the  very  lax  notions  which  all  our 
authorities  seem  to  have  had  upon  the  principles 
of  classification,  and  the  arbitrary  manner  in 
which  they  conjoin  or  dissever  tribes  upon  no 
intelligible  grounds.  Certainly  they  were  not 
guided  by  any  comparative  study  of  languages, 
for  it  has  been  reserved  for  later  scholars  to  dis- 
cern, under  superficial  divergences,  the  essential 
identity  of  kindred  tongues.  But  if  we  regard 
Japhet,  Shem,  and  Ham  as  representing  the 
northern,  central,  and  southern  zones  of  popula- 
tion respectively,1  we  shall  not  find  any  difficulty 
in  understanding  how  a  Semitic  nation  like  the 
Phoenicians,  that  had  dwelt  in  the  midst  of 
Hamite  tribes,  and  probably  acquired  no  small 
share  of  their  habits  and  morals,  should  have 
been  classed  among  them.    The  same  is  probably 

1  Renan,  p.  50. 


Cities  of  Phoenicia.  39 

the  case  with  the  Cushites,  who  seem  to  have 
been  nearly  connected  with  the  Phoenicians  ;  for 
although  they  too  are  placed  among  the  descend- 
ants of  Ham,  it  is  certain  that  in  the  countries 
that  bore  this  name  Semitic  dialects  were  spoken 
from  a  very  high  antiquity.1  At  any  rate,  it  is 
much  more  easy  to  conceive  of  a  change  of  man- 
ners and  beliefs,  than  it  is  to  imagine  a  nation 
changing  its  language.2 

But  be  all  this  as  it  may,  it  is  certain  that  the 
children  of  Israel  on  their  arrival  in  the  Land  of 
Promise  found  the  coast  of  Phoenicia  studded 
with  thriving  commercial  cities.  "  The  strong 
city  Tyre  "  is  mentioned  first  in  Joshua  xix.  29, 
but  Sidon  is  known  to  Jacob  at  the  time  of  the 
blessing  of  his  children.  And  even  Sidon,  ac- 
cording to  the  native  tradition,  was  compelled 
to  yield  in  antiquity  to  Byblus  and  Berytus,  the 
towns  of  a  race  distinct  from  the  Sidonian 
Canaanites,  and  at  this  time  independent  of 
them.3     Berytus,  the  modern  Beirut,  may  indeed 

1  Renan,  p.  52,  note  i. ;  cp.  p.  186. 

2  The  Bishop  of  Ely  (in  the  Speaker's  Commentary, 
Gen.  x.  6)  reverses  this  statement,  and  supposes  that  the 
Canaanites  were  of  Hamite  origin,  but  adopted  a  Semitic 
language  from  some  (purely  imaginary)  Semitic  race, 
whom  they  found  in  possession  of  Palestine. 

3  Movers,  ii.;  pp.  105 — 113. 


40  Historical  Relations. 

contest  with  Damascus  the  honour  of  being-  the 
oldest  city  in  the  world  that  still  continues  to 
prosper.  But  as  far  as  the  Jewish  tradition 
carries  us  back,  Sidon  takes  its  place  at  the 
head  of  the  Phoenician  cities  ;  and  this  is  the 
true  interpretation  of  the  figure  of  speech  that 
makes  Sidon  "the  eldest-born  of  Canaan."1 
Tyre,  though  as  we  have  seen  it  was  founded 
before  the  invasion  of  the  Israelites,  was  still  in 
a  state  of  dependence  on  the  mother-state ;  and 
the  name  of  Sidon,  as  we  see  from  the  limits 
assigned  to  the  tribe  of  Zebulon,  was  applied 
to  the  whole  sea-coast,  as  far  to  the  south  as 
Carmel. 

We  may  therefore  figure  to  ourselves  the 
strip  of  coast-land  covered  by  the  name  "  Phoe- 
nicia"2 tenanted  at  this  time  by  a  people  un- 
questionably allied  very  closely  to  the  Canaanites 
of  the  interior,  but  distinguished  from  them 
by  striking  differences  of  manners,  and  a  still 
more  advanced  and  peaceful  civilization.  Con- 
fined to  a  narrow  strip  of  land  by  the  spurs  of 

1  Movers,  ii.,  pp.  89 — 92. 

2  Movers  (ii.,  p.  15)  has  collected  abundance  of  evidence 
to  show  that  both  "  Canaan  "  and  "  Phoenicia  "  (or  more 
properly  Phoenice  [Winer,  RWB.,  s.  v.])  were  used  in 
a  wider  and  a  narrower  sense. 


Phoenician  Alphabet.  41 

Lebanon,  which  served  at  the  same  time  to 
protect  them  to  a  great  extent  from  incursions 
from  the  east,  the  Sidonian  people  devoted 
themselves  at  first  to  the  fisheries  from  which 
they  drew  their  name.1  But  the  numerous 
harbours  with  which  the  coast  was  furnished, 
tempted  them  to  venture  by  degrees  on  longer 
voyages  than  had  ever  been  tried  before. 
Egypt,  then  under  the  rule  of  the  kindred 
Hyksos  kings,  was  naturally  the  first  country 
with  which  they  established  commercial  re- 
lations, and  at  a  very  early  age  these  had  grown 
into  great  importance.  Bunsen  may  possibly 
have  over-estimated  the  effects  of  the  intimate 
connection  which  resulted  ;  but  we  cannot  doubt 
that  the  intercourse  of  the  Phoenicians  with  the 
country  that  was  then  in  the  forefront  of  the 
civilization  of  the  world,  must  have  had  a  very 
powerful  influence  in  developing  the  arts  and 
sciences  amongst  them.  Whether  it  was  from 
this  quarter  that  the  Phoenician  alphabet  was 
derived,  is  a  point  on  which  it  is  much  less  easy 
to  arrive  at  a  satisfactory  conclusion :  adhuc 
sub  iudice  lis  est.  Ewald  maintains,  more  suo 
undoubtingly,  that  this  inestimable  benefit  is  due 
1  Cp.  Movers,  ii.3  p.  86,  note  (8). 


4  2  Historical  Relations. 

to  the  shepherd  kings  of  Avaris,  who  obtained 
it  by  a  modification  of  the  Egyptian  hieratic 
writing,1  and  the  same  view  fundamentally  is 
supported  by  a  number  of  savants,  referred  to 
by  M.  Renan.2  But  that  distinguished  scholar 
is  himself  of  the  opinion  that  the  alphabet  of 
twenty-two  letters  had  its  origin  in  Babylon, 
where  the  earliest  specimens  of  it,  he  thinks,  are 
found  ; 3  and  that  the  Phoenicians,  here  as  in  so 
many  other  points,  were  simply  the  medium 
through  which  the  discoveries  of  Babylon  passed 
into  the  western  world.4  This  view  does  not 
appear  to  harmonize  with  the  admitted  fact,  that 
the  children  of  Israel  were  ignorant  of  the  art 
of  writing  when  they  went  down  into  Egypt, 
and  had  acquired  the  knowledge  of  it  by  the 
time  of  the  Exodus.5  So  that  we  are  led  to  agree 
with  M.  Renan  that  "1'origine  de  l'ecritufe,  chez 

1  Ewald,  ii.,  p.  7  (E.  T.),  cp.  i.,  p.  49. 

2  P-  113. 

3  p.  72. 

4  p.  1 1 5.  It  is  very  noteworthy  that  the  names  of  the 
letters  point  to  an  origin  among  a  pastoral  rather  than  a 
commercial  people.     See  Diet.  Bible,  iii.  1790$. 

5  This  is  abundantly  proved  by  Renan,  p.  117,  and 
Ewald,  i.,  p.  47.  There  is  not  a  single  reference  to  writing 
of  any  kind  in  the  book  of  Genesis.  It  is  first  distinctly 
mentioned  in  Ex.  xvii.  14. 


Phoenicia  and  Egypt,  43 

les  Semites  comme  chez  tous  les  peuples,  se 
cache  dans  une  profonde  nuit."  At  any  rate 
we  may  be  certain,  that  when  the  Israelites 
entered  the  Holy  Land,  the  Phoenicians  were 
already  carrying  this  priceless  treasure  where- 
ever  their  commerce  spread,  though  it  was  not 
till  centuries  after  that  the  Greeks  had  made 
themselves  familiar  with  its  value.1  The  nature 
and  effects  of  this  commerce  will  have  to  be 
considered  more  at  length  in  a  subsequent 
section  of  this  essay. 

From  the  accession  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty, 
the  Sidonians  appear  to  have  been  tributaries  of 
the  Egyptians,  and  to  have  remained  content 
with  a  nominal  dependence,  which  left  them 
free  to  pursue  their  peaceful  avocations  in  un- 
disturbed security.  We  do  not  find  the  names 
of  any  one  of  their  cities  recorded  in  the  lists  of 
conquered  rebels,  which  adorn  the  walls  of  the 
temples  of  Thothmes  III.,  Seti  I.,  and  Rameses  II. 
While  all  the  other  Canaanitish  tribes  were  fur- 
nishing constant   material   for  the  triumphs   of 

1  This  seems  one  (we  are  tempted  to  write  the  one) 
definite  conclusion  which  has  resulted  from  the  vast  mass 
of  controversial  writing,  originating  in  the  publication  of 
F.  A.  Wolf's  famous  Prolegomena. 


44  Historical  Relations,, 

the  Egyptian  arms,  the  Sidonians  seem  to  have 
severed  themselves  entirely  from  their  brethren 
of  the  inland  districts,  and  the  frequent  men- 
tion made  of  them  speaks  only  of  the  splendour 
of  their  arts  and  the  magnitude  of  their  tribute. 
In  another  most  interesting  account  of  the 
country,  which,  like  the  one  already  quoted,  has 
been  made  accessible  to  us  by  M.  Chabas,  we 
have  valuable  notices  of  the  various  Phoenician 
cities.  The  account  is  thrown  into  the  form  of 
an  imaginary  journey  made  through  the  land 
by  an  Egyptian  officer  towards  the  end  of  the 
reign  of  Rameses  II., and  throughout  the  traveller 
speaks  as  if  he  were  on  Egyptian  soil,  "  travel- 
ling with  as  much  freedom  and  security  as  if  he 
had  been  in  the  Nile  valley,  and  even,  by  virtue 
of  his  functions,  exercising  some  authority."1 

It  is  evident  that  the  kings  of  Egypt,  like  the 
kings  of  Persia  a  thousand  years  later,  felt  that 
they  needed  the  services  of  the  Phoenician 
marine,  and  therefore  treated  these  valued 
vassals  with  marked  lenity  and  favour,  while 
they  in  their  turn,  content  with  an  almost 
nominal  subjection  that  left  them  the  full  en- 
joyment of  their  national  worship,  laws,  and 
i  Lenormant,  ii.,  pp.  160,  161. 


Trade  of  Phoenicia.  45 

customs,  showed  no  desire  to  throw  off  the 
yoke  that  lay  so  lightly.  One  result  of  this 
sagacious  mercantile  policy  was  the  rise  of  the 
wealth  and  influence  of  Sidon  to  its  culminating 
point.  This  was  the  period  when,  as  Humboldt 
says,  "  their  flag  waved  at  once  in  Britain  and 
the  Indian  Ocean."  Free  as  yet  from  the  com- 
petition of  the  bold  Ionian  mariners,  who  were 
soon  to  drive  them  and  their  colonists  alike 
from  the  western  waters  of  the  Mediterranean, 
they  had  no  rivals  in  a  trade,  whose  profits  were 
sometimes  almost  fabulous.1  Aristotle  tells  us  of 
one  visit  to  Tartessus,  in  which  for  the  oil  and 
other  products  of  little  value  with  which  they 
had  laden  their  vessels,  they  received  so  much 
silver  that  they  were  unable  to  carry  it,  and  at 
last  cut  off  the  masses  of  lead  which  had  served 
them  as  anchors,  and  substituted  silver  in  the 
place  of  them.  The  science  of  comparative 
mythology  forbids  us  to  follow  M.  Lenormant  in 
regarding  the  story  of  the  Golden  Fleece  as  in- 
tended to  symbolize  the  wealth  that  they  drew 
from  their  commerce  with  the  Euxine,  but  the 

type    is  not  the    less   happy  because   very    far 

# 

1  De  Mir.  Ausc,  p.   147  (quoted  by   Mr.   Kenrick,  p. 

211). 


4  6  Historical  Relations. 

from  the  original  meaning  of  the  myth.1  When, 
centuries  later,  the  gold  of  Colchis,  the  tin  of 
the  Caucasus,  and  the  steel  of  the  barbarous 
Chalybes  found  their  way  to  the  markets  of 
Greece  in  the  ships  of  Chalcis  or  Athens, 
instead  of  the  Sidonian  galleys,  no  image  could 
be  more  than  adequate  to  express  the  gain  to 
the  people  of  Hellas. 

Another,  and,  for  our  present  purpose,  a  yet 
more  important  result  of  this  contented  ac- 
quiescence in  the  suzerainty  of  Egypt  on  the 
part  of  the  Phoenicians,  was  the  extent  to  which 
it  divided  their  interests  from  those  of  the  other 
Canaanitish  nations.  Even  in  the  great  con- 
federacy headed  by  Jabin,  king  of  Hazor,  we 
find  them  taking  no  part ;  and  when  this  was 
broken  at  the  battle  of  Merom,  the  fugitives 
are  pursued  to  the  borders  of  "  great  Sidon  ' 
(Josh.  xi.  8),  but  there  the  pursuit  apparently 
ends.  Accustomed  as  they  were  to  see  the 
armies  of  Egypt  pour  into  the  country  of 
Canaan,  year  after  year,  they  might  well  look 
with  comparative  indifference  on  the  progress 
of  a  new  invader.     This  peaceful    relation    be- 

i  Cp.  Cox's  Mythology  of  the  Aryan  Nations,  ii.,  pp. 
150—153. 


Land  Trade.  47 

tween  the  Israelites  and  the  Phoenicians  would 
be  promoted  by  the   position   and  interests   of 
both  the   nations.1     The  district  of  Sidon   had 
apparently  been  included  in  the  earliest  scheme 
of  conquest.     But  it  had  not  fallen  to  the  lot  of 
either    of   the   two   most  powerful  and  warlike 
tribes,  Judah  and  Ephraim  ;  it  was  destined  for 
the   feebler  and  less  energetic,  Asher,  Zebulon, 
Issachar,  and  Naphtali.     The  impetuous  rush  of 
the  hardy  warriors   of  the   desert,  thirsting  for 
the  blessings  of  the  Promised  Land,  had  spent 
itself  in  its  early  efforts,  and  the  northern  tribes 
were  well  contented  with  the  marvellous  fertility 
of  the  plain  of  Esdraelon,2  which  probably  fur- 
nished abundant  supplies  for  their  scantier  num- 
bers.      The    Phoenicians,    on    the    other    hand, 
would   have  the   strongest  inducements  to  live 
on  terms  of  amity  with  their  new  neighbours.   We 
shall  have  occasion  to  notice  hereafter  how  large 
a  portion  of  their  commerce  consisted  in  a  carry- 
ing trade  by  land.3     Now  at  the  time  when  the 
wave  of  invasion  was  rolling  towards  the  borders 


1  Movers,  ii.,  pp.  305,  599. 

2  See  Stanley's  Sinai  and  Palestine,  p.  348,  sq. 

3  This  is  fully  discussed  by  Movers,  vol.  ii.,  part  3,  pp. 
128 — 147,  and  200—313. 


48  Historical  Relations. 

of  Phoenicia,  it  had  already  swept  over  southern 
and  central  Palestine,  and  if  the  Canaanites  had 
not  yet  been  extirpated  from  the  land,  at  least 
their  kingdoms  had  been  broken  up,  and  their 
power  completely  crippled.  The  great  lines  of 
traffic  with  Egypt,  Arabia,  Babylon,  and  As- 
syria were  in  the  hands  of  the  invaders,  and 
any  hostilities  with  them  must  necessarily  have 
caused  a  ruinous  suspension  of  commerce.1  Per- 
haps we  may  find  a  further  reason  for  the  policy 
that  was  adopted,  in  the  fact  that  just  before  the 
arrival  of  the  Israelites  there  seems  to  have  been 
a  great  extension  of  the  power  of  the  Amorites,2 
so  that,  in  southern  Canaan  at  any  rate,  it  was 
with  these  especially  that  the  invaders  came 
into  contact.  But  we  have  seen  already  that  of 
all  the  population  of  Palestine  (excluding  the 
remnants  of  the  barbarous  aborigines),  the 
Amorites  were  those  who  were  furthest  removed 
from  the  Phoenicians,  and  those,  in  consequence, 
with  whom  they  would  have  least  sympathy. 
The  "  fat  bread  "  and  "  royal  dainties  "  of  Asher3 
would  have  far  more  attractions  for  the  teeming 

i  Movers,  ii.,  p.  305. 

2  Movers,  ii.,  pp.  68,  599. 

3  Gen.  xlix.  20. 


Phoenician  Colonies.'  49 

population  of  the  Sidonian  coast  than  any  half- 
recognized  claims  of  kindred  ;  and  the  people 
whose  descendants  long  after  "were  nourished 
by  the  king's  country,"1  would  be  careful  not  to 
close  their  markets  against  the  grain  of  Galilee. 
Still  we  must  not  go  so  far  as  Mr.  Kenrick, 
and  say  that  the  settlement  of  the  Israelites  in 
Canaan  "produced  no  visible  effect  on  the 
condition  of  the  Phoenician  cities."2  We  may 
be  sure  that  no  small  number  of  those  who 
"  fled  from  before  the  face  of  the  robber  Joshua, 
the  son  of  Nun,"  would  take  refuge  in  the 
kindred  towns  on  the  coast,  and  so,  by  increasing 
the  pressure  of  a  population  already  super- 
abundant, give  rise  to  colonies,  in  the  strict 
sense  of  the  term,  as  distinguished  from  the 
trading  posts  and  commercial  factories  which 
were  all  that  had  previously  been  established. 
The  dense  obscurity  which  envelops  the  early 
history  of  Greece,  and  the  hopelessness  of  all 
attempts   to  establish  a  trustworthy  system   of 

1  Acts  xn.  20. 

2  Phoenicia,  p.  63. 

3  The  genuineness  of  the  celebrated  inscription  in 
Mauretania,  reported  by  Procopius  to  contain  these  words, 
has  been  disproved  by  recent  scholars.  See  Kenrick, 
pp.  67,  68  ;  Ewald,  ii.,  p.  230. 

4 


50  Historical  Relations. 

chronology  before  the  date  of  the  first  Olympiad,' 
prevent  us  from  speaking  here  with  any  con- 
fidence ;  but  it  is  at  least  possible  that  one  of 
these  was  that  which  Cadmus  is  said  to  have 
led  to  Thebes  j1  and  the  best  authorities  (Movers 
and  Munk)  are  willing  to  assign  to  this  period 
some  of  the  earliest  settlements  in  Africa,2  those 
to  which  the  numerous  cities  of  the  Liby- 
Phcenicians  owe  their  origin.  And  further,  we 
may  gladly  accept  the  theory  of  Ewald,  that 
"the  nobler  part  of  the  [Canaanite]  nation, 
unable  longer  to  maintain  themselves  in  the 
interior,  gathered  their  forces  together  on  the 
northern  sea-coast  for  a  new  and  more  vigorous 
life,  and  thus  the  regenerated  remnant  of  the 
people  gained  for  themselves  an  honourable 
place  in  the  history  of  the  world."  3 

There  is  evidence,  however,  to  show  that  the 
superiority    of    the     Israelite    arms    was    soon 

i  Even  Mr.  Cox  (Mythology  of  the  Aryans, ii.,  86,  note) 
is  willing  to  admit  that  the  manifest  connection  of  Kadmos 
with  Semitic  Kedem,  "  the  East,"  is  strong  evidence  for 
such  a  colonization,  and  it  was  enough  to  satisfy  the 
scepticism  of  Niebuhr.  But  the  date  is  a  very  different 
thing  from  the  fact.     Cp.  Grote,  ii.,  p.  48. 

2  Lenormant,  ii.,  pp.  169 — 172. 

3  Ewald,  i.,  p.  242. 


The  Northern  Tribes.  5 1 

changed    into    something  very   like    subjection. 
Not  only  did  the  tribe  of  Asher  fail  to  "drive 
out  the  inhabitants  of  Accho,  of  Sidon,"1  and  of 
the    other    Phoenician    cities,    but  we  find  that 
they  "  dwelt  among  the  Canaanites,  the  inhabit- 
ants   of  the  land,"    a  phrase  in  which  Movers2 
(from  comparing  other  instances  in  which  it  is 
used)    finds    indications    of  at    least  a   nominal 
submission.3     "The    dainties  of  the  king"    as- 
cribed to  the  same  tribe  in  the  blessing  of  Jacob, 
he    regards    as    a    tribute  paid  to  the  court  of 
Sidon,  and  finds   traces   in  the  after-history  of 
the  tribe  of  the  contempt  which  this  subservience 
awakened.4     In  the  language  used  of  Issachar 
in    the   same  grand  poem,  we  seem   to  have  a 
reference  to  the  position  of  a  tribe  bordering  on 
a  commercial   nation,  and   acting  as  the  trans- 
porters of  their  wares.     Zebulon  and  Naphtali, 
in    the    same    way,   are    brought    into    a    close 
connection,  probably  one  of  partial  dependence, 
with   Phoenicia;    and  on  the  whole  the  northern 
Israelites  during  this  obscure  period  appear  as  a 
kind  of  Metceci,  with  the  possession  of  the  land 
secured  to  them,  but  also  with  certain  burdens 

1  Judges  i.  31.  3  Gen.  xlix.  19. 

2  ii.,  1,  p.  307,  sq.  4  1  Kings  ix.  13. 


5  2  Historical  Relations. 

laid  upon  them.  From  what  we  know  of  the 
policy  of  the  Phoenician  colonies  in  similar 
cases,  we  can  readily  conceive  that  these  bur- 
dens were  sometimes  made  to  press  very 
heavily  ;  and  it  causes  us  no  surprise  when 
we  find  the  Sidonians  mentioned  among  the 
oppressors  of  Israel,  in  the  touching  record  of 
the  faithlessness  of  the  chosen  people,  and  the 
tender  compassion  of  the  Lord,  when  "  His  soul 
was  grieved  for  the  misery  of  Israel." l  The 
charge  of  Amos  (i.  9)  that  Tyre  "had  not 
remembered  the  covenant  of  brethren,  but 
delivered  up  the  whole  captivity  to  Edom,"2  may 
even  point  to  a  condition  of  vassalage,  modified 
by  the  stipulation  that  none  of  the  children  of 
Israel  should  be  carried  away  out  of  their  own 
boundaries. 

Movers  has  gleaned  one  hint  upon  the  con- 
dition of  these  vassals  from  a  very  unexpected 
quarter.  Aristophanes  (Aves,  505 — 507)  has 
these  lines  : — 

Ueiad.      x&Trod'  6  kokkvs  dirot,  k6kkv,  t6t  Slv  oi  QofriKes  dTravres 

TQVS  TTVpOVS  &V  Kal  TCLS  KpldaS  kv  TOLS  TTeSlOlS  edepL^OV. 

Eue\7r.      tovt  dp'  enhv  ,JfjU  tovttos  aXrjduis.    kSkkv,  \pu\ol,  Trediovde. 

The  scholiasts  here  inform  us   that  in  Phce- 
1  Judges  x.  12,  16.  2  Cp.  Joel  iii.  6,  8. 


Vassalage  of  the  Northern  Tribes.       53 

nicia  the  cuckoo  appears  at  the  time  of  harvest, 
while  in  Greece  the  harvest  is  of  course  later,1 
so  that  the  proverb  is  of  Phoenician  origin. 
But  ^//wXoi  is  here  evidently  a  term  of  reproach, 
and  in  this  sense  would  not  have  been  applied 
by  the  Phoenicians  to  themselves.  Besides 
which,  the  practice  of  circumcision  seems  to 
have  been  confined  to  a  part  of  Phoenicia,  and 
not  to  have  been  universal  even  there.2  Hence 
the  phrase  was  probably  applied  to  serfs,  com- 
pelled to  labour  in  the  fields,  to  whom  the 
epithet  would  be  appropriate  ;  and  we  know  of 
none  such  but  the  Hebrews.  This  interpretation 
is  strongly  confirmed  by  the  explanation  given 
in  Suidas  (s.  v.  OvpaZe)  of  the  similar  proverbial 
phrase  Ovpa^s  Kapzg,  ovket  'AvOtcrrtpia.3  What- 
ever may  be  the  value  of  this  argument — and  it 
is  certainly  greatly  diminished  by  the  fact  that 
we  have  not  the  faintest  indication  of  the 
period  at  which  it  originated — there  seems  to  be 
evidence  enough  to  show  that,  while   Phoenicia 

1  Cp.  Hesiod,  Op.  457. 

2  On  this  point  Movers  refers  to  his  article  on  the 
Phoenicians  in  Ersch  and  Gruber,  p.  421.  Herod.,  ii.,  104, 
is  not  sufficient  to  disprove  this  view. 

3  M overs  has  overlooked  this,  but  it  is  quoted  in  Kock's 
note,  ad  loc. 


54  Historical  Relations. 

remained  at  peace  with  the  nation  of  Israel, 
some  portions  at  least  of  the  weaker  northern 
tribes  were  brought,  originally  perhaps  by  their 
own  action,  into  a  state  of  dependence  ap- 
proaching to  vassalage.1 

The  curtain  now  falls  upon  Phoenicia,  at  least 
so  far  as  the  Jewish  annals  are  concerned,  and 
we  get  no  further  glimpses  of  the  cities  of  the 
coast,  except  in  one  passing  reference  to  their 
"  quiet  and  secure  life,"  until  the  establishment 
of  the  monarchy.  This  is  undoubtedly  due  in  a 
measure  to  the  very  fragmentary  condition  of 
the  records  of  the  time  preserved  to  us.  The 
composer  of  the  Book  of  Judges  was  much 
more  careful  to  recount  the  striking  instances  of 
the  punishment  that  had  fallen  upon  the  people 
for  their  sins,  and  the  wonderful  deliverances 
granted  to  them,  when  they  turned  again  in 
penitence  to  Jahveh,  than  he  was  to  draw  up  a 
complete  chronological  history.  And  if  the 
opinion  of  Ewald  be  correct,  that  the  "  Book  of 
Covenants,"  on  which  the  Book  of  Judges  as  we 
have  it  now  was  based,  was  written  by  an  author 
belonging  to   the   tribe  of  Judah,2  we  can  the 

1  Mainly  from  Movers,  ii.,  i,  302 — 315. 

2  Cp.  i.,  p.  72^  and  140^ 


Egyptian  Invasions.  55 

more  readily  understand  the  paucity  of  our 
information  upon  all  but  the  most  striking 
events  connected  with  Northern  Palestine. 

But  all  indications  point  to  a  peaceful  alliance 
between  the  Phoenician  cities  and  the  tribes 
that  bordered  upon  them.1  Heeren  (Historical 
Researches,  ii.,  p.  117)  has  well  brought  out  the 
importance  of  the  corn  supplies  of  Galilee  to 
the  wealthy  mercantile  towns  of  the  coast,  and 
we  may  believe  that  the  absence  of  any  men- 
tion of  conflicts  between  the  two  nations  is  not 
solely  due  to  the  incompleteness  of  our  chronicles 
of  the  period. 

We  are  not  left,  however,  without  information 
from  other  sources  to  throw  light  on  this  period 
of  darkness,  and  profane  historians  help  us  to 
understand  the  change  that  has  taken  place  in 
the  internal  condition  of  Phoenicia  when  we 
find  it  next  coming  into  prominence  in  the 
Hebrew  annals.  We  learn  from  hieroglyphic 
inscriptions  the  immense  importance  attached 
by  the  Egyptian  kings  to  a  secure  possession  of 
the  littoral  region  of  Canaan,  as  forming  the 
military  road  by  which  their  armies  advanced 
to  the  ever- recurring  wars  with  the  Khitas  and 
1  Cp.  Stanley,  Sinai  and  Palestine,  p.  363. 


56  Historical  Relations. 

the  other  nations  of  Northern  Syria.1  It  may 
indeed  well  be  that  the  fear  of  a  direct  collision 
with  the  power  of  Egypt  was  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal causes  that  led  the  children  of  Israel  to 
abstain  from  any  direct  attack  upon  the  cities  of 
the  coast.  For  as  long  as  the  road  to  the  un- 
subdued people  of  the  North  was  still  left  open, 
the  Pharaohs  were  probably  contented  with  a 
merely  nominal  supremacy  over  the  hilly  inland 
country,  a  supremacy  which  is  not  indeed 
mentioned  in  the  Biblical  narrative,  but  to 
which  the  circumstances  of  the  case  very  de- 
cidedly point.2  It  is  at  all  events  certain  that 
no  mention  is  made  of  the  conquests  of  Rameses 
III.  in  the  books  of  Joshua  and  of  Judges, 
though  M.  Biot  has  assigned  them,  on  indubitable 
astronomical  evidence,3  to  the  close  of  the  four- 
teenth century  B.C.,  a  period  certainly  included 
in  the  time  with  which  those  books  are  con- 
cerned ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  very  full 
monumental  record  of  these  conquests  in  the 
temple  of  Medinet  Abou,  contains  no  reference 
to    the   children    of  Israel.     But  the  tablets  of 


1  Lenormant,  i.,  p.  264,  et  scrpius. 

2  lb.,  p.  263. 

3  lb.,  p.  268,  note. 


.    The  Philistines.  57 

this  temple  depict  many  scenes  from  a  war 
which  was  indirectly  of  great  importance  to  the 
history  both  of  Israel  and  of  Phoenicia.  Next  to 
the  never-ending  struggle  with  the  Khitas,  the 
most  important  conflict  that  occupied  the  arms 
of  Rameses  was  that  with  the  Philistines.  We 
have  already  had  occasion  to  adduce  reasons 
for  accepting  the  view  of  Ewald,  that  a  portion 
of  this  nation,  though  as  yet  in  insignificant 
numbers,  had  settled  in  the  district,  where  their 
presence  afterwards  was  such  a  thorn  in  the  side 
of  Israel.  But  now,  apparently  in  alliance  with 
the  Khitas,  a  much  more  numerous  body  had 
arrived  by  sea,  probably  from  the  island  of 
Crete,  and  thrown  themselves  in  the  rear  of  the 
army  of  Rameses.  It  was  a  national  immi- 
gration rather  than  an  invasion, —  the  sculptors 
represent  them  as  followed  by  numerous  rude 
waggons,  drawn  by  oxen,  containing  their  wives 
and  children, — and  the  veterans  of  the  Pharaoh 
gained  an  easy  victory.  Others  who  followed 
them  shared  their  fate.  But  Rameses,  em- 
barrassed with  a  nation  on  his  hands,  contented 
himself  with  assi^ninG:  to  them  the  land 
round  Gaza,  Ashdod,  and  Ascalon,  in  imme- 
diate proximity  to   strong   Egyptian  garrisons. 


5  8  Historical  Relations. 

But  after  the  reign  of  Rameses  III.  the  power 
of  Egypt  rapidly  declined  ;  her  Asiatic  do- 
minions threw  off  even  her  nominal  supremacy, 
and  the  Philistines  soon  developed  into  a  warlike 
and  powerful  people.1  Augmented  probably  by 
constant  accessions  from  their  earlier  home,2  in 
the  course  of  about  a  hundred  years  they  suc- 
ceeded in  bringing  the  whole  of  Southern 
Palestine  under  their  power,  and  for  half  a 
century  ruled  the  Israelites  of  that  region  with 
a  rod  of  iron.3  But  they  did  not  confine  their 
activity  to  the  continent.  They  had  never 
forgotten  the  maritime  skill  that  had  brought 
them  into  Canaan,  and  they  seem  to  have 
devoted  themselves  largely  to  piracy.  This  it 
was,  apparently,  which  brought  them  into  con- 
flict with  the  Phoenicians ;  and  a  valuable 
notice  in  Justin4  tells  us  of  the  Sidonians  that 
"  post  multos  deinde  annos  a  rege  Ascaloniorum 

1  In  the  monuments  this  nation  is  called  Khairetana^ 
which  Mr.  Poole  indentifies  with  the  people  of  Crete,  and 
consequently,  according  to  the  best  authorities,  with  the 
Philistines.  Cp.  Rawlinson's  Herodotus,  ii.,  p.  298,  with 
Lenormant,  i.,  p.  266,  Diet.  Bible,  art.  Pliilistines  and 
Cherethites,  and  Stanley,  Sinai  and  Palestine,  p.  256. 

2  Hitzig,  Philistaer,  §  100. 

3  Cp.  Ewald,  ii.,  338. 

4  xviii.  3,  S  '}  in  Movers,  ii.  1,  p.  150. 


Fall  of  Sidon.  5  9 

expugnati,  navibus  appulsi  Tyron  urbem  ante 
annum  Troianse  cladis  condiderunt."  Justin's 
date  for  the  capture  of  Troy  is  probably 
B.C.  1208,1  so  that  we  are  able  to  fix  with  pre- 
cision the  time  of  the  transfer  of  the  hegemony 
of  Phoenicia  from  Sidon  to  Tyre.  At  the  same 
time  we  must  notice  that  the  words  of  Justin 
need  some  qualification.  Tyre,  as  we  have  seen 
already,  was  known  in  the  time  of  Joshua,  and 
the  priests  of  the  temple  of  Melkarth  there 
informed  Herodotus/  that  the  city  had  been 
founded  2,300  years  before  his  time,  a  claim 
which  Movers  is  disposed  to  allow  :3  Sidon,  again, 
if  ever  destroyed,  was  soon  rebuilt,  and  though 
it  never  regained  its  position  as  first  of  the 
Phoenician  cities,  still  it  had  a  long  career  of 
great  prosperity.  But  henceforth  it  is  Tyre, 
which  is  the  capital  of  the  cities  of  the  coast, 
and  Tyre  whose  kings  are  brought  into  imme- 
diate relation  with  Israel. 

Again  the  curtain  fails.  The  sacred  narrative 
makes  no  mention  of  Phoenicia  till  the  days  of 

1  Cp.  Kenrick,  p.  342,  Movers,  ii.,  1,  p.  150 — 166.  I 
cannot  discover  the  authority  on  which  Prof.  Rawlinson 
(Manual,  p.  39)  adopts  as  the  date  B.C.  1050. 

2  ii-,  P-  44. 

3  ii-?  h  PP.  134—137. 


60  Histcfical  Relations. 

David  ; *  and  all  that  we  can  gather  from  other 
sources  is  a  string  of  names  that  are  mythical. 
Phcenix,  father  of  Cadmus  and  Europa,  is  a 
personification  of  the  country,  or,  according  to 
comparative  mythologists,  a  still  more  shadowy 
form,  the  lord  of  the  purple  region  of  the  dawn.2 
Belus  is  of  course  the  god  Baal ;  and  Agenor, 
like  Phaidimos,  the  Sidonian  of  Homer,3  is  the 
Greek  translation  of  the  epithet  of  some  deity, 
probably  Melkarth.4  But  we  are  able  to  watch 
the  operation  of  the  causes  which  were  soon  to 
bring  the  kingdoms  of  Tyre  and  of  Israel  into 
close  connection  with  each  other.  First  among 
them  we  must  place  the  growth  of  the  power 
of  the  Philistines.  It  does  not  appear  that 
after  the  campaign  which   resulted    in    the   de- 

1  i  Kings  v.  I,  vii.  14. 

2  Cox,  Aryan  Mythology,  i.,  p.  438. 

3  Od.  iv.  617.  The  curious  fact  that  Homer,  though  seve- 
ral times  referring  to  Phoenicia  and  to  the  Sidonians,  never 
once  mentions  Tyre,  may  perhaps  be  best  explained  by 
the  hypothesis  that  he  knew  by  tradition  of  a  period  when 
Sidon  was  the  leading  city,  and  Tyre  insignificant,  and 
that  he  uses  the  name  of  the  former  from  a  wish  to  give 
an  archaic  colouring  to  his  poem.  But  there  are  not 
many  scholars  who  will  see  in  this  fact,  with  Mr.  Glad- 
stone (Juventus  Mundi,  p.  144),  satisfactory  evidence 
that  Homer  wrote  before  the  fall  of  Sidon. 

4  Kenrick,  p.  347. 


Philistines  and  Phoenicians.  6 1 

struction  of  Sidon  they  made  any  serious 
attack  upon  Phoenicia.  The  narrow  and  barren 
strip  of  coast  that  lay  between  the  Philis- 
tian  and  Phoenician  cities,  the  district  round 
Dor  and  Joppa,  could  have  offered  to  a  pastoral 
and  agricultural  people  like  the  Philistines  no 
attractions  comparable  to  those  of  the  fertile 
land  of  Judah  j1  and  it  was  to  this  accordingly 
that  their  arms  were  constantly  directed.  Still 
we  must  consider  their  relations  with  the  neigh- 
bours on  the  north  to  have  been  those  of  sus- 
picion, if  not  of  positive  hostility.  We  have 
indeed  several  passages  from  the  later  prophets 
in  which  they  are  apparently  spoken  of  as  allies.2 

1  "  The  most  striking  and  characteristic  feature  of 
Philistia  is  its  immense  plain  of  cornfields,  stretching 
from  the  edge  of  the  sandy  tract  right  up  to  the  very  wall 
of  the  hills  of  Judah,  which  look  down  its  whole  length 
from  north  to  south.  These  rich  fields  must  have  been 
the  great  source  at  once  of  the  power  and  of  the  value 
of  Philistia  ;  the  cause  of  its  frequent  aggressions  on 
Israel,  and  of  the  ceaseless  efforts  of  Israel  to  master 
the  territory." — Stanley,  Sinai  and  Palestine,  p.  258. 

2  Jer.  xlvii.  4 :  "  The  day  cometh  to  spoil  all  the  Philis- 
tines, and  to  cut  off  from  Tyrus  and  Zidon  every  helper 
that  remaineth."  Joel  iii.  4  :  "  What  have  ye  to  do  with 
me,  O  Tyre,  and  Zidon,  and  all  the  coasts  of  Palestine." 
Zech.  ix.  3 — -5 :  "  Tyrus  did  build  herself  a  strong  hold, 
and  heaped  up  silver  and  gold.  .  .  .  Behold,  the  Lord 
will  cast  her  out,  and  He  will  smite  her  power  in  the 


62  Historical  Relations. 

But  Movers1  can  hardly  be  right  in  assuming 
from  these  that  the  friendly  connection  dates 
from  the  period  which  we  are  now  considering. 
It  is  much  more  likely  that  it  dates  from  the 
time  when  the  power  of  the  Philistines  had  not 
yet  recovered  from  the  heavy  blows  inflicted 
upon  it  by  David  ;  and  the  friendship  with 
Judah,  if  not  with  the  northern  kingdom,  had 
been  broken  off  by  the  expulsion  of  the  dynasty 
of  Hiram  ;  but  at  this  earlier  period  an  attitude 
of  jealousy  is  much  more  intelligible  than  one  of 
close  alliance.2 

Another  fact  of  the  time  which  contributed 
to  bring  together  Phoenicia  and  Israel,  was  the 
decline  of  the  two  great  empires  that  had 
hitherto  overshadowed  them  both  from  opposite 
sides.  We  have  already  referred  to  the  decline 
of  the  Egyptian  power  under  the  twentieth 
and  twenty-first  dynasties  ;  but  a  similar  loss 
of  strength  seems  to  have  befallen  the  empire 

sea;  and  she  shall  be  devoured  with  fire.  Ashkelon 
shall  see  it,  and  fear  ;  Gaza  also,  and  be  very  sorrowful, 
and  Ekron,"  etc. 

1  ii.,  I,  p.  316. 

2  We  find  them  positively  at  war  with  each  other  at  the 
commencement  of  the  reign  of  David.  See  Lenormant, 
i.-,  p.  137- 


Empire  of  David.  63 

of  Assyria,  so  that  all  her  possessions  west  of 
the  Euphrates  were  taken  from  her  by  the  con- 
quering Khitas.1  We  can  readily  believe  that 
the  way  was  thus  made  clear  for  the  establish- 
ment  of  a  strong,  compact,  and  independent 
monarchy  in  Palestine,  and  nothing  would  more 
contribute  to  this  than  a  good  understanding 
with  the  powerful  league  of  maritime  cities. 
They  in  their  turn  would  be  ready  enough  to 
accept  a  position  of  secure  amity.  "  It  must 
have  been  with  no  common  interest  that  the 
surrounding  nations  looked  out  to  see  on  what 
prey  the  Lion  of  Judah,  now  about  to  issue  from 
his  native  lair,  would  make  his  first  spring."2 
And  when,  after  crushing,  for  the  time  at 
least,  the  power  of  the  Philistines,  the  strength 
of  the  new  military  organization  of  Israel  was 
turned  upon  the  nations  of  the  east  and  south; 
when  Edom,  as  a  submissive  slave,  held  the 
sandal,  which  had  been  drawn  off  that  the 
monarch  might  wash  his  feet  in  Moab,  as  in  a 
basin  destined  for  the  vilest  uses  ;3  when  the  king 

1  Lenormant,  i.,  p.  376.     On  these  Khitas  or  Khatti, 
cp.  Rawlinson's  Herodotus,  i.,  p.  379. 

2  Stanley,  Jewish  Church,  ii.,  p.  79. 

3  Psalm  cviii.  9  ;  cp.  Herod.,  ii.,  p.  172. 


64  Historical  Relations. 

of  Hamath,  on  the  distant  Orontes,  became  an 
ally  of  the  victorious  David,  we  do  not  wonder 
at  finding  Tyre  contributing  stores  of  cedar- 
wood1  to  build  him  a  house  in  the  new  capital  of 
the  new  and  mighty  empire.2 

The  friendly  relations,  then  if  not  previously 
established,  lasted  without  interruption  to  the 
close  of  the  reign  of  Solomon.  The  honours 
which  the  young  King  Hiram  (only  twenty-eight 
years  of  age  at  the  death  of  David)3  had  gladly 
paid  to  the  aged  poet-king  would  be  granted 
not  less  willingly  to  his  youthful  successor,  for 
whom  he  seems  to  have  entertained  a  strong 
personal  affection.  And  the  similarity  between 
the  positions  of  the  two  princes  would  have 
tended  further  to  cement  this  alliance.  Hiram, 
like  David,  had  just  established  his  throne 
securely    upon    the    ruins    of   the   rule    of    the 

1  2  Sam.  v.  ii. 

2  Eupolemus  asserts  that  David  conquered  Hiram,  and 
made  Phoenicia  tributary,  but  in  the  silence  of  the  Bibli- 
cal narrative,  which  gives  us  such  full  details  of  the  other 
wars  of  David,  this  assertion  cannot  be  accepted.  Cp. 
Movers,  ii.,  i,  p.  332. 

3  Movers,  ii.,  1,  p.  328.  I  do  not  know  on  what  authority 
Dean  Stanley  speaks  of  the  "relation  between  the  old 
Phoenician  and  the  young  Israelite."  Solomon  cannot 
well  have  been  ten  years  younger  than  Hiram. 


Revolution  in  Tyre.  65 

Shophetim,  or  judges,  and  raised  his  country  to 
a  position  of  power  and  independence  which  it 
had  not  previously  enjoyed.  And  if  his  capital 
was  not,  like  Jerusalem,  a  new  acquisition,  the 
extent  to  which  he  enlarged,  strengthened,  and 
beautified  it  made  it  practically  a  new  creation.1 
The  influence  of  this  close  connection  will  have 
to  be  considered  afterwards ;  in  this  rapid  his- 
torical survey  it  only  claims  a  mention. 

Within  twenty  years  of  the  death  of  Hiram 
his  dynasty  had  fallen.  His  grandson,2  Abdas- 
tertus,  had  been  murdered  sby  the  sons  of  his 
nurse,  and  the  eldest  of  these  had  placed  himself 
upon  the  throne.  Movers  identifies  this  revolu- 
tion with  one  which  Justin,  with  his  usual  disre- 
gard of  chronology,  puts  much  later,  just  before 
the  capture  of  the  city  by  Alexander.  Accord- 
ing to  his  view,  this  was  an  uprising  of  the  mer- 
cenaries, aided  by  the  numerous  slaves  and  the 
poverty-stricken  commons,  against  the  rule  of 
the  patrician  houses,  resembling  in  its  causes, 
and  probably  also  in  the  horrors  with  which  it 

1  Cp.  Kenrick's  Phoenicia,  pp.  348 — 354;  Movers,  ii.,  1, 

P-  329. 

2  Lenormant  writes    the  name  Abdastoreth  ;  I  do  not 
know  on  what  authority. 

5 


66  Historical  Relations.. 

was  accompanied,  the  terrible  insurrections  of 
the  mercenaries  and  the  Liby-Phcenicians  against ' 
the  tyranny  of  the  Carthaginian  plutocracy.  The 
reign  of  disorder  appears  to  have  lasted  twelve 
years,  and  to  have  had  for  its  natural  results  the 
expulsion  of  many  noble  families,  who  probably 
fled  to  the  colonies  already  existing,  or  founded 
new  ones,  and  constant  wars  with  the  neighbour- 
ing cities  that  still  retained  their  aristocratic 
constitutions.1  It  is  an  ingenious  and  probable 
conjecture  of  M.  Lenormant  that  Shishak,  king 
of  Egypt,  who  had  contributed  to  the  great  re- 
bellion in  Israel  by  the  encouragement  which  he 
gave  to  Jeroboam,  and  who  was  at  the  time 
meditating  an  invasion  of  Palestine,  may  have 
been  the  author  of  the  downfall  of  the  dynasty 
of  Hiram.  After  the  restitution  of  the  royal 
house  in  the  person  of  Astartus,  another  grand- 
son of  Hiram,  the  numerous  irregularities  in 
the  succession  show  how  severely  the  period  of 
anarchy  had  strained  the  Tyrian  constitution  ; 
and  during  the  time  of  disorder  in  the  northern 
kingdom  marked  by  the  murders  of  Nadab, 
Elah,    Zimri,    and    Tibni,    hardly    less    disorder 

i  Movers,  ii.,  i,  p.  342. 


Jezebel.  6  7 

seems  to  have  reigned  in  Tyre.1  In  thirty-three 
years  we  find  five  rulers,  not  one  of  whom  was 
succeeded  by  his  natural  heir.  The  establish- 
ment of  a  lasting  dynasty  by  Omri  was  nearly 
contemporaneous  with  the  accession  of  Ithobaal 
to  the  throne  of  Tyre.  It  is  probable  that  the 
latter  was  the  rightful  representative  of  the  race 
of  Hiram  ;  at  least,  we  know  that  he  held  the 
priesthood  of  Astarte,  which  was  confined  to  the 
royal  family,  and  the  security  of  his  possession 
of  the  throne  seems  some  evidence  of  the  legality 
of  his  claim  to  it.2  The  marriage  of  his  daughter 
Jezebel  (more  correctly  Isebel)  to  the  son  of 
Omri,  Ahab,  was  only  a  mark  of  the  close  con- 
nection which  would  naturally  be  renewed  as 
soon  as  the  two  neighbouring  nations  found 
themselves  again  under  settled  government. 
To  the  important  commercial  relations,  of 
which  we  have  already  spoken,  was  now  added 

1  For  the  period  between  the  accession  of  Hiram  and 
the  flight  of  Elissa  (980 — 826  according  to  Movers),  we 
have  unusually  trustworthy  authorities  in  the  numerous 
fragments  of  the  native  historians,  Dius  and  Menander, 
quoted  by  Josephus,  Antiq,  viii.  5,  3,  and  in  Apion.  i.,  17, 
18.  Cp.  Movers,  ii.,  i,  pp.  190,  191,  where  they  are  ex- 
tracted. 

2  Movers,  ii.,  1,  p.  345,  but  cp.  against  this  Ewald,  iii., 
P-  170.  _    .  ^    . 


68  Historical  Relations. 

the  need  of  a  defensive  alliance  against  the 
growing  and  aggressive  power  of  the  kingdom 
of  Syria,  whose  capital  was  Damascus.  And 
we  shall  not  be  wrong,  I  think,  in  seeing  with 
Movers,1  in  this  marriage  an  instance  of  the 
policy,  pursued  with  so  much  success  by  the 
Phoenicians  of  Carthage,  who  again  and  again 
bound  the  native  princes  to  them  by  links  of 
affinity  and  by  the  powerful  influence  of  their 
brilliant  and  beautiful  women.  Certainly  the 
force  of  character,  cunning,  boldness,  and  regal 
pride  even  in  the  hour  of  death,  shown  by 
Jezebel,  cannot  but  remind  us  of  many  stories 
told  us  of  Dido,  of  Sophonisba,  of  the  wife  of 
Hasdrubal  in  the  final  siege  of  Carthage. 

It  is  curious  that  we  find  no  trace  of  any 
attempt  on  the  part  of  the  king  of  Tyre, 
Mattan,2  the  grandson  of  Ethbaal,  to  attempt 
to  revenge  upon  Jehu  the  murder  of  his  aunt 
Jezebel,  and  the  massacre  of  the  worshippers  of 
Baal  in  the  temple  of  Samaria.  This  may  be 
partly  due  to  the  peaceful  policy  of  Phoenicia. 

1  ii.,  i,  p.  347- 

2  On  the  various  forms  of  this  name,  identical  with  the 
Muttines  of  Livy  (xxv.  40,  41,  ed,  Weissenborn),  see 
Movers,  ii.,  1,  p.  353,  note  64,  and  Mommsen,  ii.,  p.  149. 


Dido.  69 

But  it  is  at  least  a  singular  coincidence,  if 
nothing  more,  that  we  find  in  the  very  year  in 
which  Jehu  ascended  the  throne,  an  expedition 
of  Shalmaneser,  which  resulted  in  the  payment 
of  tribute  by  Tyre,  Sidon,  and  Jebal,  and  also 
the  record l  of  a  valuable  present  made  by 
Jehu  to  the  Assyrian  monarch.  It  is  probable 
that  Shalmaneser  would  not  readily  allow  an 
attack  to  be  made  on  a  valued  tributary.  But, 
again,  it  is  all  but  certain  that  the  internal  dis- 
sensions must  have  already  begun  which  finally 
led  to  the  expulsion  of  Elessar,2  and  so  to  the 
foundation  of  Carthage.  Movers  has  collected 
much  evidence  to  show  that  this  movement,  of 
such  interest  not  only  to  Phoenician  but  also 
to  universal  history,  originated  in  a  rising  of  the 
commons  against  the  ruling  aristocratic  houses.3 
Mattan  had  left  the  royal  power  to  be  shared 
by  his  son  Pygmalion  (or  Piimeliun,  according 
to  Lenormant),  and  a  daughter,  Elessar,  several 

1  On  the  black  obelisk  in  the  British  Museum.  The 
name  is  read  there  as  Jahua  son  of  Khumri,  i.e.,  Jehu  son 
of  Omri ;  on  which  see  Dr.  Hincks's  note  in  Rawlinson's 
Herodotus,  i.,  pp.  378 — 380,  and  cp.  Lenormant,  ii.,p.  185. 

2  So  in  Etym.  Magn.,  s.  v.  Dido,  quoted  by  Movers  ; 
cp.  pp.  362—391. 

3  ii-,   1,  PP.  350—364. 


70  Historical  Relations. 

years  his  senior.  But  a  popular  emente,  for 
which  the  disorders  of  many  preceding  years 
had  paved  the  way,  deprived  the  princess  of 
all  share  in  the  government,  and  surrounded 
the  young  king  with  democratic  councillors. 
Probably  in  order  to  strengthen  her  position 
by  the  support  of  the  priestly  party,  Elessar 
married  Sicharbaal,1  the  high-priest  of  Melkarth, 
brother  of  the  late  king,  and  chief  functionary 
of  the  national  religion.  His  position  not  only 
brought  him  in  much  revenue,  but  also  gave 
him  rank  next  to  the  king,  and  made  him, 
during  the  minority  of  the  latter,  his  legal  re- 
presentative.2 To  rid  himself  of  so  formidable 
a  rival,  Pygmalion,  as  soon  as  he  had  grown  to 
manhood,  caused  him  to  be  assassinated.  His 
widow,  burning  for  revenge,  formed  a  conspiracy 
among  the  nobles  to  dethrone  her  brother,  and 
restore  the  aristocratic  constitution  ;  and  -the 
failure  of  this  led  to  the  flight  of  Elessar,  ac- 
companied by  numerous  nobles  and  their  ad- 
herents. It  seems  to  have  been  only  after  her 
arrival  in  Libya  that  she  received  the  name  of 
Dido,  "the  fugitive."    The  confusion  that  sprang 

1  Cp.  Movers,  note  67. 

2  See  Movers,  ii.,  1,  pp.  543 — 545. 


Athaiiah.  7 1 

up  afterwards  between  the  queen  so  denoted 
by  reason  of  her  exile,  and  the  moon-goddess 
Astarte,  who  bore  the  epithet,  as  the  wanderer 
in  the  heavens,1  is  very  curious  as  affording 
an  instance  of  one  of  the  most  fertile  sources 
of  mythology,  but  does  not  bear  directly  upon 
our  present  subject.  What  is  of  importance 
for  us  to  notice  is  that  Tyre  must  have  been 
so  weakened  by  this  long  period  of  disorder, 
followed  by  the  loss  of  many  of  its  wealthiest 
citizens,  as  to  have  little  wish  or  power  to  in- 
terfere in  the  concerns  of  its  neighbours.  Its 
influence  during  this  period  was  mainly  felt 
in  the  extension  of  the  worship  of  Baal  by 
Athaiiah,  the  wicked  daughter  of  a  wicked 
Tyrian  mother,  Jezebel ;  and  the  dangers  which 
threatened  the  northern  kingdom  came  from  the 
east,  not  from  the  west,  from  the  kingdoms  of 
Damascus  and  Nineveh,  bitterly  hostile  to  each 

1  Compare  the  lines  of  Shelley — 

Art  thou  pale  for  weariness 
Of  climbing  heaven,  and  gazing  on  the  earth, 

Wandering  companionless 
Among  the  stars  that  have  a  different  birth  ? 

The  Ety'm.  Magn.,  s.  v.  Dido,  explains  At5w  by  ir\avTjTts,  and 
Movers  identifies  X*TH  with  KTH3  "die  Umherir- 
rende,"  p.  363,  note  92.     See  also  Kurts'  Mythologie,  p.  62. 


7  2  Historical  Relations. 

other,  but  each  alternately  laying  a  heavy  hand 
of  oppression  on  the  kingdoms  of  Israel.  The 
only  references  that  we  have  to  Phoenicia  during 
this  period  are  found  in  one  of  the  two  great 
prophets  of  the  northern  kingdom,  Amos.  He 
threatens  that  "  the  Lord  will  send  a  fire  into 
the  wall  of  Tyre,  and  it  shall  devour  her 
palaces,  for  three  transgressions  and  for  four, 
because  they  delivered  up  an  entire  captivity 
unto  Edom,  and  remembered  not  the  covenant 
of  brethren."1  This  seems  to  refer  to  the  raids 
of  small  bodies  of  slave-hunters,  rather  than  to 
any  collective  action  on  the  part  of  the  nation. 
The  yet  earlier  prophet  of  the  southern  king- 
dom, Joel,  represents  these  bands  as  penetrating 
even  into  the  land  of  Judah,  and  selling  "  the 
sons  of  Judah  and  the  sons  of  Jerusalem  to 
the  sons  of  Javan,  that  they  might  be  removed 
far  from  their  own  border."2  And  Homer  gives 
us  some  vivid  pictures  of  their  treachery  and 
cunning  in  kidnapping  the  children  of  the 
Greek  chieftains,8  and  carrying  them  beyond 
the    sea    for    sale.      The    Edomites,    like    the 

1  i.,  p.  9.  2  Hi.,  p.  6. 

3  Odyss.,  xiv.    287,    298;  xv.  415 — 429.     "While  pro- 
fessedly describing  an  uncertified  past,  his  combinations 


Invasion  of  Sargon.  73 

Midianites  of  the  days  of  Joseph,  were  the 
carriers  of  the  desert,  and  "the  children  of 
Javan,"  or  Grecians,  as  the  authorized  version 
rightly  calls  them,  had  by  this  time  established 
most  extensive  commercial  dealings  with  the 
Phoenicians. 

We  are  surprised  to  find  how  quickly  Tyre 
recovered  from  the  loss  inflicted  upon  her  by 
the  flight  of  the  founders  of  Carthage.  As  in 
all  the  Greek  tyrannies,  which  sprang  up  for  the 
most  part  shortly  after  the  period  now  under 
consideration,  we  find  that  the  attempt  of  the 
Tyrian  commons  to  shake  off  the  rule  of  the 
few,  only  resulted  in  establishing  the  despotic 
rule  of  one.1  But,  as  in  Athens  under  the 
Peisistratids,  Corinth  under  the  Cypselids,  Sicyon 
under  Cleisthenes,  Argos  under  Pheidon,  this 
despotism  was  far  from  checking  the  prosperity 
of  the  state.  The  only  direct  effect  of  it  which 
we  can  trace  with  clearness  is  the  disaffection 
that  it  seems  to  have  produced  in  the  other 
cities  of  the  Phoenician  league.  We  find  that 
in  the  great  trouble  that  was  soon  to  come  upon 

are  involuntarily  borrowed  from  the  surrounding  present." 
— Grote,  i.,  p.  454. 

1  Lenormant,  ii.,  p.  187. 


74  Historical  Relations. 

Tyre,  few  if  any  of  its  subject  towns  stood  by 
it,  but  all  hastened  to  make  submission  to  the 
invader.       This     was     S argon,    the    father    of 
Sennacherib.     There   is    reason  to  believe  that 
he  was   a   usurper,  and   the   founder  of  a  new 
and  vigorous  dynasty.1     On  his  inscriptions  he 
claims  the  honour  of  the  capture    of  Samaria, 
and    the  completion   of  the  captivity  of  Israel. 
From    other  sources  we  learn   that  he  made  a 
determined    attack    upon   Phoenicia,  which  was 
indeed    the    natural    result  of  his  possession   of 
Damascus.     During   the   earlier    years    of    the 
Assyrian    empire,  its   monarchs  had  been  con- 
tented    in     the    main    with     conducting    their 
commerce   with   the  west    through  the   agency 
of    the    desert   tribes,    who    served    as    carriers 
for   the    Phoenicians.      But    the   absorption    of 
the     Chaldaeans    had    given    a     more     purely 
military  and  aggressive  character  to  the  king- 
dom of  Nineveh.2     The  kingdom  of  Damascus, 
which,    itself    a   dangerous    neighbour    to    the 
maritime   states,  had    still   served    as    their  ad- 
vanced  guard  against  the  Assyrians,  had  been 
greatly  weakened  by  the  victories  of  Joash  and 

1  Rawlinson's  Herodotus,  i.,  p.  385. 

2  Cp.  Kenrick,  p.  372,  and  Movers,  ii.,  1,  p.  376,  sqq. 


Capture  of  Samaria.  75 

Jeroboam  II.  ;  and  finally  fell  an  easy  prey 
to  "the  Tiger  Lord  of  Asshur "  (Tiglath- 
Pileser),  who  captured  Damascus,  and  slew  the 
last  of  its  monarchs,  Rezin.  A  firm  alliance 
between  Syria,  the  two  Jewish  kingdoms,  and 
Phoenicia,  might  possibly  have  interposed  an 
effectual  barrier  to  the  growth  of  Assyria,1  but 
divided  by  mutual  jealousies,  they  were  power- 
less to  resist  the  conqueror's  march.2  The 
trans-Jordanic  tribes  were  swept  into  captivity; 
the  successor  of  the  Tiger-king  again  attacked 
the  land  of  Israel,3  and  either  he  or  the  monarch 
who  seems  to  have  supplanted  him  completed 
the  ruin  of  the  northern  kingdom.  The  narra- 
tive   in     the   Book    of   Kings    leaves    us    with 

1  Movers  has  shown  reason  for  believing  that  within 
the  kingdom  of  Israel  there  was  a  strong  party  in  favour  of 
Assyria  (ii.,  I,  p.  378),  which  the  monarchs  of  that  country 
fostered  in  accordance  with  their  policy  at  that  time. 

2  We  find  only  one  instance  of  any  attempt  to  form 
such  a  league.  Towards  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Tiglath- 
Pileser,  Mutton,  king  of  Tyre,  made  an  alliance  with 
Pekah,  and  they  both  refused  to  pay  tribute  to  Assyria. 
But  an  army  was  sent  to  enforce  obedience.  Hoshea 
formed  a  conspiracy,  slew  Pekah,  and  then  made  terms 
himself  with  Assyria,  and  Mutton  finding  himself  de- 
serted, was  obliged  to  follow  his  example. — See  Lenormant, 
i.,  391  (cp.  p.  172,  where  there  is  a  more  doubtful  instance 
of  the  same  kind). 

3  Lenormant,  i.,  p.  392.    Cp.  p.  1 75. 


76  Historical  Relations. 

the  impression  that  it  was  Shalmaneser  who 
captured  the  city  of  Samaria  ;  but  this  is  not 
directly  asserted,  and  his  successor,  Sargon, 
claims  the  exploit  for  himself  in  one  of  the 
Khorsabad  inscriptions.  It  seems  most  probable 
that  the  latter  was  Tartan,  or  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  Assyrian  army ;  and  that  the  block- 
ade of  Samaria  was  commenced  by  Shalmaneser; 
but  that  on  his  death,  either  after  he  had 
returned  to  Assyria,  or  else  in  the  land  of 
Israel,  or  perhaps  even  in  consequence  of  a 
rebellion  at  home  occasioned  by  the  long 
absence  of  the  monarch  from  the  capital,1 
Sargon  succeeded  in  establishing  himself  on  the 
throne.  It  is  certainly  to  him  that  we  must 
ascribe  the  important  campaigns  that  followed. 
The  inscription  already  referred  to  recounts, 
probably  with  truth,  numerous  other  conquests 
which  followed  that  of  Samaria,  all  marked  by 
the  same  extensive  deportations  of  the  con- 
quered nations.2  But  in  one  case  the  monu- 
mental record  is  incomplete,  or  rather  false. 
After  describing  the  battle  of  Raphia,  in  which 

Rawlinson's  Herodotus;  i.,  p.  387. 
2  For  the  objects  of  this  policy  see  Ewald's  good  re- 
marks, iii.,  pp.  302,  303. 


Siege  of  Tyre.  77 

the  king  of  Gaza,  and  SJiebek?  king  of  Egypt, 
were  routed,  and  compelled  to  promise  "  tribute 
of  gold,  spices,  horses,  and  camels,"  Sargon  goes 
on  to  say :  "  Master  of  battles  I  crossed  the 
sea  of  Jamnia  in  ships,  like  a  fish.  I  annexed 
Kui  and  Tyre."  The  annals  of  Tyre,  preserved 
by  Josephus  (Ant.  IX.,  14,  2),  give  a  very 
different  and  probably  truer  story.2  "  Elulseus, 
to  whom  they  gave  the  name  Pya,  ruled  for 
thirty-six  years.  Upon  the  revolt  of  the 
Kittians,3  he  sailed  against  them,  and  reduced 
them  to  submission.  Shalmaneser,  having  sent 
an  army  against  these  people,  overran  the  whole 
of  Phoenicia,  and  then,  having  made  peace  with 
all,  returned  home.  But  Sidon,  and  Ake,  and 
Palae-Tyrus,  and  many  other  cities,  revolted 
from  the  Tyrians,  and  gave  themselves  up  to 
the  king  of  Assyria.  Then,  as  the  Tyrians 
had  not  submitted  to  him,  the  king  marched 
against  them  again,  and  the  Phoenicians  con- 
tributed a  fleet  of  sixty  ships  and  eight  hundred 
row-boats  (liriKWTrovg).     But  the  Tyrians  sailing 

1  So,  according  to  the  Masoretic  pointing  in  2  Kings  xvii. 
4,  but  cp.  Ewald,  iii.,  316,  note  1.   (First  German  edition.) 

2  Cp.  Movers,  ii.,  1,  pp.  383 — 385. 
8  Chittim,  of  Cyprus. 


7  8  Historical  Relations. 

against  these  with  twelve  ships,  scattered  the 
enemy's  fleet,  and  took  about  five  hundred 
prisoners,  and  all  in  Tyre  won  much  honour  by 
this.  So  the  king-  of  Assyria  returned  home, 
after  posting  guards  at  the  river  [apparently 
the  copious  spring  of  Ras-el-Ain,  praised  so 
by  Nonnus,  xl.  360]  *  and  the  aqueducts,  to  pre- 
vent the  Tyrians  from  drawing  water.  But  the 
Tyrians  held  out  for  five  years,  and  got  their 
water  from  wells  that  they  dug." 2  Here,  as  per- 
haps in  the  Jewish  annals,  Shalmaneser  is  con- 
fused with  Sargon  ;  but  this  furnishes  no  ground 
for  speaking  of  the  account  as  "  probably  unhis- 
torical."  3  Movers  has  well  pointed  out  the  im- 
portance of  Cyprus  (probably  an  old  possession 
of  the  Assyrians  in  their  earlier  palmy  days),4 
not  only  from  its  great  productiveness,  but  also 
as  the  only  station  for  a  fleet,  intended  to  operate 
against  Phoenicia  and  Egypt,  which  would  be 
accessible  to  the  Assyrian  monarchs.  It  is  pro- 
bable, therefore,  that  the  revolt  of  Cyprus  against 

1  Kenrick,  p.  346. 

2  Translated  from  the  original,  cp.  Movers,  /.  c.  The 
version  by  Lenormant  is  not  very  correct  (i.,  p.  396).  Cp. 
Cheyae's  Isaiah,  p.  91. 

3  Rawlinson,  u.  s.,  p.  386,  note  4. 

4  See  Movers,  ii.,  1,  p.  292. 


Result  of  the  Siege.  79 

the  Tyrian  rule  was  the  work  of  Assyrian  policy, 
and    was    supported    by  Assyrian    arms.       The 
appeal  to  the  monarchy  of  Nineveh  at  this  time 
has  a  parallel  in  the  appeal  to  the  king  of  Persia 
afterwards  when  the  island  seemed  in  the  way 
to   become    a    powerful  Greek    kingdom    under 
Evagoras.1     The    connection    of  this    campaign 
with  the  battle  of  Raphia  will  readily  be  under- 
stood if  we  remember  that  to  Egypt  the  Israel- 
ites, the  Phoenicians,  and  the  Philistines  all  were 
looking   as    their   ally   against    the    threatening 
domination  of  Assyria.     It  was  the  discovery  of 
a  conspiracy  of  Hoshea  with  Seveh,  or  Shebek, 
king  of  Egypt,  that  led  to  the  complete  captivity 
of  the   northern  kingdom  ;  and  the  prophets  of 
the  period  have  constant  references  to  the  con- 
nection of  interests  and  (intermittingly)  of  action 
between  the  various  objects  of  the  ambition  of 
Assyria.    The  earlier  Zechariah,  in  words  already 
quoted,  speaks  of  the  alarm  that  should  fall  upon 
Askelon  and  Ashdod  at  hearing  of  the  fate  of 
Tyre  ;  and  Isaiah  in  several  passages  speaks  of 
Egypt  as  the  hope  of  Phoenicia,  though  he  does  not 
fail  to  point  out  how  untrustworthy  this  hope  was.2 

1  Grote,  vii.,  pp.  17 — 20  (8  vol.  ed.) 

2  Is.  xx.  5, 6,xxiii.  5.   Cp.  Ewald,  iii.,  p.  316;  Movers,  ii., 
1,  p.  394,  sq. 


80  Historical  Relations. 

The  result  of  this  blockade  of  the  island-city 
of  Tyre  is  not  stated  definitely  by  any  authority, 
for  the  Khorsabad  inscription  may  refer  only  to 
Palae-Tyrus.  But  Movers1  supplies  some  very 
strong  arguments  for  believing  that  the  reduction 
of  the  city  was  at  last  effected,  not  the  least 
forcible  of  which  is  the  very  suspicious  silence  of 
the  fragment  of  Menander  (ap.  Josephum 2)  as  to 
the  final  issue.  The  capture  of  some  five  hun- 
dred prisoners  would  hardly  have  been  dwelt 
upon  so  much  if  it  had  been  cast  into  the  shade 
by  a  five  years'  successful  defiance  of  the  whole 
power  of  Assyria.  It  is  only  one  of  the  sadly 
numerous  instances  in  which  M.  Lenormant  turns 
unsupported  conjectures  into  unqualified  asser- 
tions,3 if  he  writes,  "the  siege  lasted  five  years  ; 
and  at  labt  the  lieutenants  of  Sargon,  tired  of 
their  useless  efforts,  and  seeing  no  probable  end 


i  ii.,  i,  p.  397—400. 

2  Antiq.,  ix.,  14,  2.  Mr.  Cheyne  draws  just  the  opposite 
conclusion  from  the  language  of  Menander  (Isaiah,  p.  56); 
but  this  is  alike  less  natural  in  itself,  and  opposed  to  the 
many  other  indications  of  the  result.  Sargon,  in  one  of 
his  inscriptions  now  in  the  British  Museum,  distinctly 
says  that  he  "has  destroyed  the  city  of  Tyre."  Cp. 
Cheyne's  Isaiah,  p.  239. 

3  Cp.  Edinburgh  Review  for  July,  1870. 


Tyre  and  Assyria.  8 1 

to  their  undertaking,  decided  on  raising  the 
siege."1  And  again:  "At  the  end  of  this  long 
and  fruitless  siege,  the  Assyrians  were  compelled 
to  retreat." a  There  seems,  however,  reason  for 
believing  that  the  terms  conceded  were  honour- 
able, and  that  Tyre  was  left  in  a  condition  of 
wealth  and  prosperity.3 

Now  we  have  again  a  long  period  of  darkness, 
all  authorities  failing  us,  with  the  exception  of 
the  cuneiform  inscriptions,  which  here  and  there 
shed  some  gleams  of  light  upon  the  position  of 
the  Phoenician  cities  in  relation  to  Assyria. 
Movers,  writing  before  any  of  these  records  were 
deciphered,  represents  the  century  which  elapsed 
between  the  siege  of  Tyre  by  Sargon's  generals, 
and  its  capture  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  as  one  of 
peaceful  submission  on  their  part  to  the  Ninevite 
empire.4  The  evident  desire  of  the  Assyrian 
monarchs  to  bind  together  the  various  provinces 
that  owned  their  sway  by  the  ties  of  commerce 
and  friendly  intercourse,  and  to  weld  them  into 
a  compact  and  united  kingdom,  leads  us  to 
imagine  that  they  would  have  furnished  every 

1  ii.,  p.  190.  3  Kenrick,  p.  380. 

2  i.,  p.  396.  4  ii.,  I,  pp.  400—402. 

6 


82  Historical  Relations. 

protection  to  the  lucrative  trade  of  Tyre.  And 
that  this  was  the  case  in  the  main  is  evident 
from  the  great  prosperity  which  the  city  enjoyed 
during  this  period.  We  have  a  vivid  picture  of 
this  in  the  words  of  the  contemporary  prophet 
Isaiah  (xxiii.  7)  : 

Who  hath  decreed  this  against  Tyre, 

The  city  that  dispensed  crowns, 

Whose  merchants  were  princes, 

Whose  traffickers  the  honoured  of  the  land  ? 

And  a  magnificent  description  of  the  same  city, 
under  the  emblem  of  a  ship,  its  wealth,  strength, 
and  luxury  being  symbolized  by  the  beauty  and 
firm  structure  of  one  of  its  own  state  galleys, 
is  furnished  to  us  by  the  somewhat  later  prophet 
Ezekiel.1  But  in  spite  of  the  great  material 
advantages  resulting  from  a  close  connection 
with  Assyria  (counterbalanced,  however,  to  a 
certain  extent  by  losses  arising  from  the  inter- 
ruption of  trade  with  countries  at  war  with 
Assyria,  and  from  the  establishment  of  Assyrian 
colonies),2  the  attractions  of  the  old  alliance  with 
Egypt,  and  the  impatience  of  foreign  rule,  break- 

1  Chap,  xxvii.,  of  which  an  excellent  translation  is  given 
by  Kenrick,  pp.  192 — 195. 

2  Movers,  ii.,  1,  pp.  409 — 412. 


Revolts  against  Assyria.  83 

ing  out  occasionally  with  unexpected  fierceness 
in  the  Phoenician  race,  sometimes  shook  their 
fidelity.  We  find,  for  instance,  that  upon  the 
death  of  Sargon,  Elulaeus,  the  king  of  Tyre 
mentioned  before,  profited  by  the  temporary 
confusion  that  ensued  to  extend  his  rule  over 
the  other  Phoenician  cities,  and  to  throw  off  the 
yoke  of  Assyria.  The  first  campaign  of  Sen- 
nacherib was  directed  against  the  rebel  monarch, 
and  seems  to  have  resulted  in  his  expulsion,  after 
the  capture  of  his  capital.1  The  next  instance  of 
resistance  was  offered  by  Sidon,2  during  the  dis- 
turbances which  followed  the  assassination  of 
Sennacherib ;  but  his  successor,  Esarhaddon, 
marched  in  person  into  Phoenicia,  and  quelled 
the  revolt.  He  says  himself  of  Sidon,  in  an  in- 
scription :  "  I  have  put  all  its  grandees  to  death  ; 
I  destroyed  its  walls  and  its  houses  ;  I  threw 
them  into  the  sea  ;  I  destroyed  the  sites  of  its 
temples."3 

Not  twenty  years  after  this,4  we  find  the  Phoe- 
nicians again  in  revolt,  this  time  supported  by 
the  Ethiopian  king  of  Egypt,  who  succeeded 
Tirhakah  ;  but  the  Assyrian  monarch,  Asshur- 

1  Lenormant,  ii.,  p.  191.  3  Lenormant,  ii.,  p.  192. 

2  Rawlinson,  i.,  p.  390.  4  Rawlinson,  i.,  p.  395. 


84  Historical  Relations. 

banipal,  after  a  successful  campaign  in  Egypt, 
reduced  them  again  to  submission. 

The  great  Scythic  invasion  of  B.C.  620  (circ.) 
seems  to  have  had  but  little  permanent  effect 
upon  any  of  the  nations  over  which  it  swept  like 
a  whirlwind.  But  the  revival  of  Egyptian  power 
under  Psammetichus,  and  the  capture  and  de- 
struction of  Nineveh  by  the  Medes  and  Baby- 
lonians, were  far  more  fruitful  of  results.1  When 
Necho,  the  son  of  Psammetichus,  advanced  into 
Syria  to  share  the  spoils  of  the  Ninevite  empire, 
the  Phoenician  cities  seem  to  have  welcomed 
him  with  alacrity,  and  aided  him  with  their  fleet 
in  his  probably  successful  attempt  to  circum- 
navigate Africa.  Josiah,  faithful  to  his  Babylo- 
nian allies,  in  vain  endeavoured  to  stop  the  course 
of  the  invader  at  Megiddo,  and  was  slain  in 
battle  there  ;  but  the  Egyptian  army  suffered  a 
complete  defeat  at  Carchemish,  at  the  hands 
of  Nebuchadnezzar.  Syria  was  utterly  lost  to 
the  Pharaohs,  and  when  afterwards  the  kings  of 
Egypt  attempted  to  protect  their  frontier  by 
securing  the  alliance  of  the  kings  of  Judah,  they 
only  brought  ruin  on  their  allies.  At  the  time 
of  the    capture  of  Jerusalem,    in    the    reign    of 

1  Ewald,  iii.,  p.  424,  sq. 


Siege  of  Tyre.  85 

Jehoiakim,1  and  again  when  it  suffered  the  same 
fate  under  Jehoiachin,  Nebuchadnezzar  seems  to 
have  had  no  leisure  to  turn  his  arms  against 
Phoenicia,  and  its  citizens  began  to  feel  them- 
selves secure.2  But  Ezekiel  warned  them  in 
words  of  eloquent  denunciation  of  the  desola- 
tion that  should  soon  come  upon  them  :  "  Because 
that  Tyrus  hath  said  against  Jerusalem,  Aha,  she 
is  broken  that  was  the  gates  of  the  nations  :  I 
shall  be  replenished,  now  she  is  laid  waste  :  there- 
fore thus  saith  the  Lord  God,  Behold  I  am 
against  thee,  O  Tyrus,  and  will  cause  many 
nations  to  come  up  against  thee,  as  the  sea 
causeth  his  waves  to  come  up.  And  they  shall 
destroy  the  walls  of  Tyrus,  and  break  down  her 
towers."  The  prophecy  was  soon,  at  least  in 
spirit,  to  be  fulfilled.  It  was  probably  after  the 
capture    of     Jerusalem      that    Nebuchadnezzar 

1  See,  however,  Stanley,  "  Jewish  Church,''  ii.,  p.  539. 

2  There  seems  even  to  have  been  at  this  time  some 
alliance  between  Phoenicia  and  the  Chaldeans.  At  least 
Apries  (Pharaoh  Hophra)  is  said  to  have  taken  Sidon  by 
storm,  and  fought  a  naval  battle  with  the  Tyrians  (Herod., 
ii.,  p.  i6t).  Perhaps  they  changed  sides  after  the  battle  of 
Carchemish,  or  at  least  were  neutral.  Lenormant  how- 
ever places  this  invasion  of  Uahprahet  (as  he  calls  him) 
after  the  capture  of  Tyre.  But  see  Sir  J.  G.  Wilkinson's 
note  in  Rawlinson's  Herodotus,  /.  c. 


86  Historical  Relations. 

marched  against  the  Phoenician  cities,  which 
seem  (willingly  or  by  compulsion)  to  have  joined 
the  coalition  of  Zedekiah  and  Pharaoh  Hophra, 
with  the  Moabites,  the  Ammonites,  and  the 
Edomites,  against  the  Babylonian  conqueror.1 
Tyre  was  the  only  one  which  offered  any  lasting 
resistance,  and  against  this  the  full  force  of 
Nebuchadnezzar  was  directed.  The  thirteen 
years'  siege  that  ensued  was  one  of  the  most 
famous  in  history ;  but,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
leaguer  of  Sargon,  we  are  quite  unable  to  speak 
with  confidence  as  to  its  termination.  It  has 
usually  been  supposed  that  Tyre  was  taken  and 
destroyed  ;  but  this  supposition  rests  upon  the 
assumption  that  the  prophecies  of  Ezekiel  must 
have  had  a  complete  and  exact  fulfilment.  The 
instance  of  Jonah  at  Nineveh  shows  us  that  this 
need  not  have  been  so,  and  other  words  of  the 
prophet,  spoken  sixteen  years  after  his  first  de- 
nunciations, seem  to  imply  that  the  fate  which  he 
had  threatened  did  not  actually  fall  upon  Tyre. 

i  See  last  note  on  the  preceding  page  ;  cp.  Movers,  ii.. 
I,  pp.  426  and  450 — 458. 

2  Ezek.  xxix.  1 7.  Cp.  Kenrick,  pp.  388 — 390,  and  Diet. 
Bible,  s.v.  Tyre.  Hitzig  on  Ezek.  xxvi.  denies  that  the 
prophecy  was  ever  fulfilled.  Fairbairn  naturally  takes  the 
opposite  view. 


PJiocnicia  subject  to  Babylon.  87 

Movers  has  discussed  the  question  with  his 
usual  exhaustive  completeness  (ii.  I.  427 — 449), 
and  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  the  city  finally 
submitted,  but  on  honourable  conditions,  and 
that  at  any  rate  the  island-city  was  never  cap- 
tured by  force.  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  long 
duration  of  the  sie°;e  must  have  inflicted  a 
serious  blow  upon  the  prosperity  of  Tyre  ;  and 
though  we  find  a  series  of  kings  filling  the 
throne  down  to  the  days  of  Alexander,  they 
were  little  more  than  satraps  of  the  kings  of 
Babylon,  and  afterwards  of  Persia.  The  inde- 
pendent national  life  of  the  Phoenician  cities 
terminated  with  their  absorption  into  the  empire 
of  Nebuchadnezzar.  The  same  limit  may  be 
assigned  for  the  purposes  of  the  present  essay 
to  the  national  life  of  the  children  of  Israel  ; 
and  here  we  may  close  this  rapid  survey  of  the 
exterior  history  of  the  mutual  relations  of  the 
two  great  peoples  of  Palestine.  The  following 
chapters  will  contain  a  consideration  of  the  re- 
sults, political,  social,  and  religious,  of  these 
relations. 


88 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE    INFLUENCE   OF    PHOENICIA    UPON   ISRAEL, 
POLITICAL   AND    SOCIAL. 

Common  Race  Characteristics — For  the  most  part  lost — 
Canaanite  and  Phoenician  Influence  tending  in  the  same 
direction — Counteracting  Influences — Vows — Civic  Leagues — 
Literature — Manufactures — Phoenician  carrying  Trade — Direct 
♦Commerce. 

"  '  I  VHE  earliest  period  of  antiquity  was  an  age 
t*-  when  nations  were  not  crowded  together 
in  large  loose  masses,  but  lived  one  beside  the 
other,  like  so  many  families,  each  retaining  its 
own  sharply  defined  character  and  distinct  cul- 
ture ;  and  when  even  the  smallest  tribe  shut  itself 
up  in  its  own  individuality,  and  relied  solely  on 
its  own  resources  to  attain  whatever  appeared  to 
be  its  highest  good.  .  .  .  Just  as  Athens  and 
Rome,  with  the  smallest  possible  territory,  could 
gain  a  place  in  the  history  of  the  world,  so  also 
could  a  nation  of  Palestine.  Now  two  nations 
of  Palestine,  we  know,  above  all  others  that  met 


Common  Semitic  Characteristics.        89 

there,  bore  away  this  palm, — two  nations  so  dif- 
ferent that  it  is  hard  to  imagine  a  stronger  con- 
trast, and  even  acting  upon  each  other  in  virtue 
of  this  very  contrast  to  intensify  their  divergence, 
yet  both  of  them  so  constituted  that  the  result 
of  their  endeavours  became  permanent,  and 
among*  the  most  conspicuous  fruits  of  the  world's 
history."1 

Before  we  attempt  to  determine  the  nature 
and  results  of  their  action  on  each  other,  two 
stumbling-blocks  must  be  removed  that  present 
themselves  at  the  very  commencement  of  our 
path.  The  Israelites,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
probably  belonged  to  the  same  great  stock,  if 
not  to  the  same  division  of  it,  as  the  Phoenicians; 
and  for  centuries  they  had  within  their  borders  the 
remnants  of  conquered  tribes  that  had  the  closest 
affinity  to  the  population  of  the  maritime  cities. 
If  then  we  find  any  points  of  resemblance  to 
the  latter  in  the  political,  social,  and  religious 
conditions  of  the  former,  we  shall  have  to  attempt 
the  preliminary  inquiry  how  far  these  are  due  to 
the  inherent  tendencies  of  the  Semitic  stock,  and 
how  far  they  may  be  ascribed  to  the  internal 
action  of  the  Canaanite  tribes  ;  and  it  is  only 
1  Ewald,  i.,  pp.  223,  234. 


90  Political  and  Social  Influence. 

that  which  still  remains  unaccounted  for  by  the 
action  of  these  constant,  and,  so  to  speak,  primary 
influences,  that  can  fairlv  be  traced  to  the  con- 
scious  or  unconscious  agency  of  the  Phoenicians. 
The  first  of  these  questions  admits  the  more 
readily  of  at  least  partial  solution,  but  in  both 
we  shall  probably  have  to  content  ourselves  with 
an  approximation  to  the  truth. 

The  evidence  of  language,  here  apparently 
incontestable,  proves  that  the  Phoenicians  be- 
longed to  the  Semitic  stock,1  but  the  historian  is 
fairly  puzzled  to  find  the  prevalent  Semitic  cha- 
racteristics entirely  wanting  among  the  Phoeni- 
cians. "  The  proper  characteristic  of  the  Semites 
is  to  have  no  industry,  no  political  spirit,  no 
municipal  organization  ;  navigation  and  coloni- 
zation seem  distasteful  to  them  ;  their  action 
confined  itself  to  the  East,  and  entered  into  the 
current  of  the  affairs  of  Europe  only  indirectly. 
In  Phoenicia,  on  the  contrary,  we  find  an  in- 
dustrial civilization,  political  revolutions,  the 
most  active  commerce  that  was  known  to  an- 
tiquity, a  nation  incessantly  penetrating  in  all 
directions  into  the  outer  world,  and  mingled  in 
all  the  destinies  of  the  Mediterranean  nations. 

1  See  above,  p.  10. 


Phoenician  Characteristics.  91 

In  religion  there  is  the  same  contrast :  instead  of 
the  severe  monotheism,  the  lofty  conception  of 
the  Deity,  the  pure  ritual  which  characterizes 
the  Semitic  nations,  we  find  among  the  Phoe- 
nicians a  coarse  mythology,  base  and  ignoble 
gods,  voluptuousness  raised  to  an  act  of  religion. 
The  most  sensual  myths  of  antiquity,  the 
phallic  rites,  the  trade  in  prostitutes,  the  infa- 
mous institutions  of  the  Galli  and  the  ItpoSovXoi 
come  in  great  measure  from  Phoenicia.  Perhaps 
if  we  had  to  point  out  among  all  the  nations  of 
antiquity  those  whose  physiognomy  contrasted 
most  with  that  of  the  Semites,  we  should  be 
tempted  to  name  the  Phoenicians.  And  yet 
this  is  the  nation  which  linguistic  facts  prove  to 
have  been  in  the  closest  fraternity  with  the 
Hebrews."1  The  only  solution  of  this  enigma  is 
to  suppose  that  the  Phoenicians,  separating 
early  from  the  general  stock,  and  rapidly  de- 
veloping a  luxurious  commercial  life,  abandoned 
their  primitive  character,  but  not  their  language, 
and  so  became  soon  very  distinct  from  and 
almost  the  opposite  of  their  nomadic  brethren.2 

1  Renan,  "Histoire  des  Langues  Semitiques."  pp.  183, 
184. 

2  This  is   of  course  directly  opposed  to  the  theory  of 


92  Political  and  Social  Influence. 

M.  Renan  reminds  us  of  the  marvellous  change 
which,  with  all  its  narrow  and  exclusive  patriot- 
ism, has  passed  over  the  Jewish  nation  ;  and 
tells  us  that  the  baseness  and  the  degrada- 
tion of  the  Arab  who  pursues  commerce  and 
handicrafts  in  the  towns  of  Barbary  furnishes  a 
striking"  contrast  to  the  natural  pride  of  the  true 
Arab,  the  Arab  of  the  desert.2  Benedict  Spinoza, 
Moses  Mendelssohn,  and  Heinrich  Heine  are 
alone  enough  to  show  how  little  race  charac- 
teristics can  be  regarded  as  immutable.  We  may 
therefore  assume  with  confidence  that  all  or 
nearly  all  the  points  of  resemblance  between  the 
Phoenicians  and  Israelites  in  their  primeval  home 
had  become  obliterated  in  the  course  of  the 
centuries  which  had  witnessed  them  living  such 
diverse  lives. 

It  is  much  less  easy  to  determine  the  effect 
that  the  Canaanitish  kinsmen  of  the  Phoeni- 
cians had  in  producing  after  the  arrival  of  the 

Prof.  Rawlinson,  that  the  Phoenicians  did  not  come  into 
the  land  about  Tyre  and  Sidon  till  long  after  the  entrance 
of  the  children  of  Israel  on  the  Promised  Land  ;  but  we 
have  seen  already  that  this  view  is  supported  by  no  com- 
petent authorities,  and  very  few  noteworthy  arguments. 

2  Renan  has  well  brought  out  the  effects  of  a  nomadic 
life,  p.  498- 


Influence  of  Canaanitcs.  93 

Israelites  some  degree  of  assimilation.  These 
Canaanites  were  very  far  from  being  a  bar- 
barous nation  ;  on  the  contrary,  we  have  many 
indications  that  they  had  already  attained  to  a 
high  but  terribly  corrupt  civilization, — "  a  sort  of 
over-ripeness  in  their  beautiful  land,  which  may 
probably  have  been  largely  due  to  their  never- 
ceasing  divisions,  through  which  every  petty 
town  could  manufacture  its  own  laws, — the 
worse,  the  better."1  The  fresh  energy  of  the  in- 
vading hosts,  their  consciousness  of  a  divine  guid- 
ance, and,  we  need  not  fear  to  add,  the  direct 
assistance  of  Jahveh  (vouchsafed  to  the  chosen 
people),  carried  the  Israelites  victorious  through 
the  first  great  battles  of  the  war.  But  though 
they  established  themselves  firmly  in  the  strong- 
holds of  the  hill  country,  il  walking,"  as  their 
poets  loved  to  express  it,  "  on  the  high  places  of 
the  land,"2  the  fertile  valleys  remained  to  a  large 
extent  in  the  hands  of  the  Canaanites,  and  the 
settlements  of  the  Israelites  were  often  "  like 
islands  shaken  by  a  stormy  ocean."3  As  soon  as 
the  firm  controlling  hand  of  Joshua  was  removed, 

1  Ewald,  i.,  p.  241. 

2  See  references  in  Ewald,  ii.,  p.  264. 

3  Ewald,  ibid. 


94  Political  and  Social  Influence. 

the  invaders  became  at   once  disorganized  and 
disunited,  and  to  the  isolated  communities  the 
neighbourhood  of  the    luxurious   and   cultured 
Canaanites  must  have  furnished  constant  sources 
of  attraction  and  temptation.     The  story  of  the 
sin  of  Achan  gives  us  just  a  glimpse  into  the 
wealth  which,  even  thus  early,  traffic  with  the 
East   must    have   brought   into  the   land  ;    and 
there  are  not  wanting  indications  of  manufac- 
turing industry.     The  "  prey  of  diverse  colours," 
which  the   mother  of  Sisera  is   represented   as 
anticipating,  may  well  have  been  the  product  of 
the   looms   of  the   conquered    Canaanites.     We 
must  certainly  ascribe  to  their  influence,  and  not 
to    that    of  the    Phoenicians,    during  this    early 
period  at  any  rate,  the  constant  lapses  from  the 
worship  of  Jahveh  into   the  foul  and  idolatrous 
cult  of  Baal  and  Ashtaroth.     The  simple  words 
of  the  Book  of  Judges  bring  this  forcibly  before 
us  :  "  And  the  children  of  Israel  dwelt  among 
the    Canaanites,    Hittites,    and    Amorites,    and 
Perizzites,  and  Hivites,  and  Jebusites  :  and  they 
took  their  daughters  to  be  their  wives,  and  gave 
their  daughters  to  their  sons,  and  served  their 
gods.    And  the  children  of  Israel  did  evil  in  the 
sight  of  the   Lord,  and    forgat  the   Lord  their 


Counteracting  Influences.  95 

God,  and  served  Baalim  and  the  groves"  (Ash- 
taroth).1  Yet,  in  the  midst  of  all  the  effeminate 
vice  that  is  implied  in  these  words,  the  character 
of  the  Jewish  nation  seems  to  have  retained  much 
of  its  primitive  simplicity.  We  must  never  forget 
that  the  dangerous  attractions  of  the  Canaanites 
were  counterbalanced  to  a  certain  extent  by  the 
bitter  hostility  that  must  have  lain  beneath  tem- 
porary alliances  and  connexions,  and  that  there 
were  rarely  wanting  some  faithful  adherents  of 
Jahveh  to  call  the  people  back  to  their  alle- 
giance to  the  God  of  their  fathers.2  A  victory 
like  that  of  Deborah  and  Barak  must  have 
swept  away  the  results  of  years  of  treacherously 
peaceful  intercourse.  And  on  the  whole  the 
impression  that  we  derive  from  the  chronicle  of 
this  period  is  that  of  primitive  simplicity  rather 
than  luxurious  civilization.  "  The  disorders  of 
the  time  breathe  always  the  air  rather  of  the 
desert  than  of  the  city."3  Many  little  phrases 
still  in  use  remind  us  of  the  nomadic  life  of  the 
desert;4  and  the  story  of  Ruth,  as  "she  stood 

1  Judges  iii.  5 — 7. 

2  Compare  the  story  of  the  overthrow  of  the  altar  of 
Baal  in  Ophrah,  by  Gideon. 

3  Stanley,  "Jewish  Church,"  i.,  p.  294. 

4  Cp.  Stanley,  //.  s.,  p.  295. 


96  Political  and  Social  Influence. 

in  tears  amid  the  alien  corn,"  is  full  of  a  delicious 
pastoral  freshness.1  The  whole  constitution  of 
Joshua  was  directed  to  the  establishment  and 
maintenance  of  the  bulk  of  the  nation  in  the 
condition  of  small  yeomen  farmers  ;2  and  any 
one  who  has  studied  with  care  the  internal  his- 
tory of  the  Roman  Republic3  will  understand 
the  vital  importance  of  his  salutary  regulations 
as  to  the  tenure  of  land  to  the  strength  and 
stability  of  the  nation.  In  spite  of  the  many 
temptations  from  the  Canaanites,  it  was  possible 
to  preserve,  at  least  in  the  parts  of  the  country 
furthest  removed  from  the  corrupting  atmo- 
sphere of  the  larger  towns,  a  national  life  funda- 
mentally pure  and  wholesome.  This  might 
have  been  attained  in  a  far  higher  degree  if 
the  Divine  commands  had  been  faithfully  exe- 
cuted, the  Canaanites  rooted  out,  and  each  free 
citizen  placed  in  possession  of  his  share  of  the 
fertile  territory.  Even  as  it  was,  this  period  had 
its  gleams  of  light  breaking  through  the  dark- 

1  Cp.  Ewald,  i.,  p.  154  ;  ii.,  p.  320. 

2  Cp.  especially  Milman,  "  History  of  the  Jews,"  i.,  pp. 
161  and  230 — 233. 

3  The  land-question  at  Rome  is  admirably  discussed  by 
Ihne,  "  Romische  Geschichte,"  vol.  i.,  book  ii.,  cc.  7  and 
17  ;  book  hi.,  c.  3. 


General  Simplicity  of  Life.  97 

ness,  or  perhaps  we  should  rather  say  that  if  we 
could  penetrate  the  veil  that  too  much  hides  it 
from  us,  we  should  find  that  what  is  covered 
is  far  less  gloomy  than  we  might  have 
imagined.  We  need  not  follow  Ewald  in  his 
somewhat  arbitrary  and  dogmatic  assignment  of 
the  Biblical  narrative  to  various  authors,  whose 
dates  and  tendencies  he  fixes  with  so  much  con- 
fidence.1 But  we  may  be  willing  to  admit  that 
the  main  object  of  the  compiler  of  the  Book  of 
Judges  was  to  point  out  the  evils  that  resulted 
from  anarchy,  and  from  a  desertion  of  the  one 
true  God,  and  that  he  passed  over  all  that  would 
not  tend  to  impress  this  the  more  deeply  on  the 
minds  of  his  readers.2 

The  veil  is  lifted  for  us  once  ;  and  though  the 
view  that  we  get  then  shows  us  the  life  of 
Northern  Israel  at  a  somewhat  later  time  than 
that  which  we  are  now  considering,  we  may  well 

1  Cp.  i.,  pp.  159—163. 

2  It  is  hard  to  see  the  force  of  Ewald's  arguments  for 
assigning  the  work  to  two  early  authorities  and  a  later 
redacteur.  There  is  nothing  unnatural,  it  seems  to  me, 
in  supposing  that  the  same  writer,  living  in  the  reign  of 
one  of  the  good  kings,  wished  to  exalt  both  the  advan- 
tages of  monarchy,  and  the  blessings  that  accompanied 
fidelity  to  Jahveh. 

7 


9  8  Political  and  Social  Influence. 

believe  that  for  our  present  purpose  it  may  be 
taken  as  a  faithful  representation  of  the  condi- 
tion of  things  at  an  earlier  period.  The  beau- 
tiful "  Song  of  Solomon"  is  probably  but  little 
later  than  the  days  of  the  great  monarch  whose 
name  it  bears,  for  this  idyllic  drama  must  have 
been  composed  before  Tirzah  had  ceased  to  be 
a  capital  city  almost  rivalling  Jerusalem.1  It 
breathes  throughout  a  spirit  of  reaction  against 
the  splendour  of  the  court  of  Solomon,  and  the 
polygamy  that  threatened  to  corrupt  the  simple 
domestic  life  of  the  people.  While  on  the  one 
hand  it  points  to  a  condition  of  no  small  literary 
development,  on  the  other  hand  it  is  fragrant 
with  the  freshness  and  innocence  of  rustic  life, 
contrasted  sharply  with  the  luxury  and  effemi- 
nacy of  the  city  and  the  palace.  We  cannot 
believe  that  the  picture  of  the  fairest  among 
women  that  went  her  way  forth  by  the  foot- 
steps of  the  flock,  and  fed  her  kids  beside  the 
shepherds'  tents,  is  drawn  entirely  from  the 
fancy  of  the  poet.  In  all  the  temptations  to  vice 
that  abounded  in  the  groves  of  Ashtaroth,  there 
must  have  been  many  a   fresh  and  simple  heart, 

1  See  Ewald,  iii.,  pp.  173 — 175.    Renan  assigns  it  to  the 
lifetime  of  Solomon.    See  the  Preface  to  his  translation. 


Position  of  Women.  99 

that  murmured  to  itself,  "  My  dove,  my  unde- 
fined is  one,  she  the  one  of  her  mother,  she  the 
choice  of  her  that  bare  her."  x 

The  surest  test  of  the  moral  elevation  of  an 
age  we  find  in  reverence  for  women,2  and  if  we 
find  them,  even  in  the  more  corrupt  and  dis- 
organized tribes  of  Northern  Canaan,  distributing 
the  spoil  in  the  rejoicings  after  victory,3  and  in 
general  enjoying  unusual  freedom  and  respect, 
we  cannot  believe  that  the  heart  of  the  nation 
can  have  been  deeply  tainted.  We  find  indeed 
outbursts  of  licentious  passion,  resulting  in 
horrible  outrage,  but  the  words  with  which  such 
deeds  were  spoken  of,  "such  folly  should  not  be 
wrought  in  Israel,"  point  to  a  national  life  still 
sound  and  morally  awake.4 

Two  points  dwelt  upon  by  Dean  Stanley  as 
instances  of  Phoenician  influence  would  seem  to 
be  more  justly  ascribed  to  the  intercourse  with 

1  Cant.  vi.  9. 

2  We  cannot  fail  to  remember  how  Tacitus  loves  to 
bring  this  out  in  his  contrast  of  the  fresh  Teutonic  tribes 
with  his  own  fast-sinking  country.  Compare,  too,  the 
Penelope  and  Nausicaa  of  Homer  with  Pericles'  idea  ol 
woman,  and  the  wife  of  Xenophon's  (Economicus. 

3  Judges  v.  11  ;  Ps.  lxviii.  11.  sq. ;  Is.  ix.  5  (from  Ewald, 

ii-,  P-  355)- 

4  Cp.  Ewald,  ii.,  p.  351.  with  references  in  note  2. 


I  CO       Political  and  Social  Influence. 

the  Canaanites.  The  first  is  the  tendency  to 
the  frequent  use  of  vows.  "  The  impulse  from 
his  early  oath,  which  nerved  the  courage  and 
patriotism  of  Hannibal  from  childhood  to  age  in 
his  warfare  against  Rome,  may  fitly  be  taken 
as  an  illustration  of  the  feeling  which,  in  its 
highest  and  noblest  forms,  led  to  the  consecra- 
tion of  Samson  and  Samuel,  and  in  its  unautho- 
rized excesses  to  the  rash  vows  of  the  whole 
nation  against  the  tribe  of  Benjamin,  of  Jeph- 
thah  against  his  daughter,  of  Saul  against 
Jonathan.  These  spasmodic  efforts  after  self- 
restraint  are  precisely  what  we  should  expect  in 
an  age  which  had  no  other  mode  of  steadying 
its  purposes  amidst  the  general  anarchy  in  which 
it  was  enveloped,  and  accordingly  in  that  age 
they  first  appear,  and  within  its  limits  expire."1 
But  it  must 'not  escape  our  notice  that  all  the 
instances  here  adduced  are  drawn  from  the  very 
tribes  that  must  have  been  exposed  the  least 
to  purely  Phoenician  influences.  It  is  going 
far  from  the  most  immediate  and  potent  cause 
to  trace  such  influence  in  the  case  of  the  trans- 
Jordanic  Jephthah.  The  striking  parallel  of 
Hannibal's  oath  only  tends  to  confirm  our 
1  Jewish  Church,  i.,  p.  294. 


Oaths  and  Vows.  101 

belief  in  the  fundamental  identity  of  the  Canaan- 
ites  and  the  Phoenicians,  and  not  to  induce  us 
to  ascribe  to  the  latter  what  may  well  be  traced 
to  the  former.  Similar  reasoning  seems  to  hold 
good  as  regards  Dean  Stanley's  second  instance. 
Ewald  rightly  lays  much  stress  upon  the  change 
from  a  purely  tribal  constitution  to  a  confederate 
civic  life,  such  as  that  displayed  by  the  league 
that  placed  itself  under  the  protection  of  Baal- 
Berith,  the  ''Covenant  God."1  But  when  he  says 
that  the  example  of  such  civic  life  and  civic 
leagues  was  obviously  given  to  the  northern 
regions  by  their  Phoenician  neighbours,  and  by 
the  ancient  Canaanite  customs,  we  may  fairly 
ask  what  need  there  is  to  assume  the  agency  of 
the  former,  when  the  influence  of  the  latter  was 
of  itself  adequate  to  produce  the  results.  Indeed 
there  are  indications  in  the  account  of  the  league 
of  Baal-Berith,  of  which  Shechem  was  the  cen- 
tre, to  show  that  it  was  at  least  semi-Canaanite 
in  its  composition. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  may  fairly  ascribe  to 
more  direct  Phoenician  influence  the  develop- 
ment of  art  and  of  literature  among  the  Israel- 

1  Ewald,  ii.,  pp.  341 — 344.     Cp.    Judges    viii.    33,   and 
Stanley,  i.,  pp.  293  and  352. 


102        Political  and  Social  Influence. 

i'tes  of  the  time  of  the  Judges.  The  origin  of 
writing,  and  the  date  of  its  first  employment, 
are  subjects  which  have  been  much  debated, 
and  the  paucity  of  evidence  makes  it  probable 
that  we  shall  never  be  able  to  arrive  at  any  posi- 
tive conclusion.  "  L'ignorance  ou  nous  sommes 
des  vrais  rapports  des  Hebreux  d'une  part  avec 
ies  Hyksos,  et  de  l'autre  avec  les  Pheniciens" 
d'une  epoque  reculee,  est  ici,  comme  sur  une 
foule  de  points,  la  source  de  grandes  perplexites."1 
But  the  opinion  of  the  best  authorities  appears 
to  be  that  writing  was  unknown  to  the  Israelites 
before  their  descent  into  the  land  of  Egypt  ; 
that  from  some  source  (probably  wholly  un- 
connected with  hieroglyphics)  they  acquired  it 
there,  but  that  it  did  not  come  into  general  use 
till  after  they  had  settled  in  the  land  of  Canaan.2 
At  any  rate  it  is  certain  that  a  vigorous  popular 
literature  was  developed  during  the  time  of  the 
Judges.  There  are  not  only  many  historical 
fragments  which  the  most  unsparing  criticism  is 
compelled  to  ascribe  to  this  era,  but  we  also 
find  lyrics  which  unite  the  greatest  boldness  and 
animation  with  a  finished  artistic  structure.     To 

i  R<fnan,  Histoire,  p.  118.     See  above,  pp.  41 — 43. 

2  Cp.  Renan,pp.  1 12— 118;  Ewald,  i.;  45—53  ;  ii.,  19—21. 


Literature.  103 

take  the  most  striking  instance,  the  Song  of 
Deborah  \x  "  The  solemn  religious  commencement 
— the  picturesque  description  of  the  state  of  the 
country — :the  mustering  of  the  troops  from  all 
quarters — the  sudden  transition  to  the  most 
contemptuous  sarcasm  against  the  tribes  that 
stood  aloof — the  life,  fire,  and  energy  of  the 
battle — the  bitter  pathos  of  the  close,"2  combine 
to  make  it  all  but  unrivalled  in  the  literature  of 
any  nation.  The  moral  elevation,  and  the  firm 
reliance  on  the  protection  of  Jahveh,  the  con- 
fidence in  the  final  overthrow  of  His  enemies, 
must  have  been  drawn  from  the  heart  of  the 
Chosen  People,  where  there  lay  deep  down 
something  better  than  the  Arab's  love  of  wild- 
ness  and  isolation,  something  better  than  the 
Phoenician's  greed  of  gain.3  Bat  the  perfection 
of  the  form  in  the  midst  of  the  archaic  simplicity 
of  tone  may  surely  have  owed  something  to  the 
influence  of  the  civilized  neighbouring  nation, 
that    even    then    seems    to    have    possessed    a 

1  "  Le  cantique  de  Debora,  dont  l'authenticite  a  enleve 
les  suffrages  des  critiques  les  plus  difficiles."  —  Renan, 
p.  124. 

2  Milman,  i.,  p.  246,  where  there  is  a  beautiful  rhyth- 
mical translation  given. 

3  Ewald,  ii.,  p.  350. 


104        Political  and  Social  Influence. 

copious  literature.1  And  "  a  people  which  on 
every  higher  occasion  felt  itself  elevated  by 
refined  poetry,  and  in  which  songs  full  of  art 
and  wit,  sung  in  alternate  choirs  by  all  who 
bore  part  in  the  solemnity,  formed  the  real  life 
and  best  consecration  of  a  popular  festival 
(and  Deborah's  songs  are  clearly  of  this  kind), 
cannot  be  considered  to  stand  upon  any  low 
level."2 

It  is  not  easy  to  determine  the  extent  to 
which  arts  and  manufactures  were  to  be  found 
among  the  Israelites  at  this  period.  Some 
among  them,  at  any  rate,  had  acquired  no  little 
skill  in  this  respect  during  their  residence  in 
Egypt,  for  when  we  are  told  in  the  account  of 
the  construction  of  the  tabernacle  that  "the 
Lord  put  wisdom  and  understanding  in  the 
heart  of  Bezaleel  and  Aholiab,  and  every  wise- 
hearted  man,  to  know  how  to  work  all  manner 
of  work  for  the  service  of  the  sanctuary,"  we 
are  probably  only  to  see  in  this  an  instance  of 

i  The  extent  to  which  this  argument  may  be  pressed 
will  of  course  depend  upon  the  amount  of  adhesion  which 
we  give  to  the  theories  which  would  make  Jacob's  Bless- 
ing, and  Miriam's  Song  of  Triumph,  the  productions  of  a 
later  age.     See  Renan,  p.  124. 

2  Ewald,  ii.,  p.  355. 


Arts  and  Manufactures.  105 

the  pious  and  true  conception  of  the  Hebrews, 
who  saw  in  all  artistic  powers,  however  acquired, 
tokens  of  the  favour  of  the  Author  of  every  good 
and  perfect  gift.  On  the  other  hand,  we  find 
that  Solomon  was  obliged  to  fetch  all  the  skilled 
workmen  for  the  building  of  his  temple  from 
Phoenicia  ;  and  this  seems  to  point  to  a  great 
decay  rather  than  an  advance  in  the  industrial 
capacities  of  his  own  people.  It  is  natural  of 
course  to  suppose  that  the  disturbed  state  of  the 
country  during  the  period  of  the  Judges,  and 
the  repeated  invasions  and  oppressions  by  foreign 
nations,  should  have  produced  this.  But  we 
may  also  attach  much  weight  to  the  neighbour- 
hood of  the  iroXv^ai^aXoL  SiSwviot,  as  Homer 
calls  them.  When  a  highly  civilized  manufac- 
turing nation  is  brought  into  contact  with  one  of 
inferior  social  advancement,  it  not  unfrequently 
happens  that  its  influence  on  the  native  industry 
of  the  latter  is  all  but  fatal.  We  can  readily 
conceive  that  those  of  the  Israelites  who  re- 
tained some  knowledge  of  the  various  processes 
of  manufacture  that  they  had  learnt  in  Egypt, 
would  find  themselves  driven  from  the  markets 
of  their  own  towns  and  villages  by  the  superior 
artistic  excellence,  and  possibly  greater  cheap- 


1 06       Political  and  Social  Influence* 

ness  (the  result  of  slave  labour),  of  the  goods 
that  were  brought  in  constantly  by  the  Phoe- 
nician hucksters.1  They  would  thus  naturally  be- 
take themselves  to  agriculture,  thereby  making 
their  former  rivals  their  eager  customers,  and 
all  knowledge  of  higher  art-workmanship  would 
die  out  by  degiees  from  among  them.  This 
view  is  of  course  not  inconsistent  with  the  exist- 
ence of  a  certain  amount  of  domestic  industry. 
Of  this  we  have  evidence  in  the  picture  given  us 
in  the  Book  of  Proverbs  of  the  virtuous  woman 
who  "maketh  fine  linen  and  selleth  it  :  she  de- 
livereth  girdles  to  the  Canaanite."2  The  use  of 
the  Gentile  name,  found  in  Hosea  and  Isaiah 
also,  as  a  synonym  for  merchant  or  pedlar,  may 
arise  from  the  identity  of  the  Phoenicians  and 
the  Canaanites  ;  but  it  seems  more  probable 
that  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  the  country,  de- 
prived of  all  their  land,  had  to  betake  them- 
selves to  petty  trade  as  the  only  means  of  a 
livelihood  open  to  them.3 

1  On  these  see  Kenrick,  p.  232.     More  is  said  of  them 
below. 

2  See    De   Wette's  version,  xxxi.   24 ;  xii.    7  ;  xxiii.   8 ; 
cp.    Movers,    ii.,    3,    p.    12,    and    Renan,    Histoire,    etc., 

p.  183. 

3  Kenrick,  p.  232. 


Commerce.  107 

Hitherto  the  problem  of  distinguishing  between 
the  influence  of  the  Canaanites  in  the  land,  and 
the  Phoenicians  on  its  borders,  has  been  difficult  ; 
it    may    be,   indeed,    insoluble.      But    when    we 
come  to  consider  the  results  of  commerce  on  a 
wider  scale,  we  find  ourselves  on  safer  ground. 
Professor  Rawlinson  has  called  attention  to  the 
fact  (already  referred  to)  that   "  Scripture  does 
not  introduce  to  our  notice  the  real  artistic  and 
commercial    Tyrians    and     Sidonians    till    the 
reigns  of  David  and  Solomon."  x     But  if  we  are 
not  wrong  in  following  something  like  a  con- 
sensus   of   authorities,    and    in    attributing    the 
Phoenician  settlements   in   Canaan   to  a   period 
antecedent   (and   probably  long    antecedent)  to 
the  Israelitish    conquest,   their  commerce   must 
already  have  been  very  important.     There  is  no 
doubt  that  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  the  land 
under  David   and  Solomon  must  have  greatly 
increased  it  ;  and  therefore  in  what  remains  to 
be  said  on  this  subject,  the  remarks  made  will 
apply  especially  to  the  period  of  the  kings.     But 
when  we  find  the  Phoenicians  spoken  of  almost 
invariably  by  the  ancients  as  the   inventors   of 

1  Herodotus,  vol.  iv.,  p.  202. 


io8       Political  and  Social  Influence. 

commerce,1  when  Herodotus  (i.  i),  represents  the 
Phoenicians  as  bringing  Egyptian  and  Assyrian 
wares  to  Greece  in  the  very  dawn  of  the  mytho- 
logical period,  and  when  wre  find  the  cities  of 
Northern  Phoenicia,  Byblus,  Berytus,  and  Aradus 
sending  out  numerous  colonies  at  a  time  which 
Movers2  (perhaps  too  definitely)  places  before 
B.C.  1600,  we  cannot  doubt  that  the  Phoenician 
commerce  was  widely  extended  at  the  very 
commencement  of  the  historic  period.  Just  as 
their  trade  by  sea  had  its  origin  in  the  fishing 
excursions  to  which  Sidon  owed  its  name,3  so 
their  trade  by  land  would  naturally  arise  from 
the  need  that  they  had  of  the  agricultural  pro- 
ducts of  the  inland  regions.  But  the  petty 
trade  that  had  these  small  beginnings  soon 
developed  into  a  far-reaching  commerce.  The 
fortunate  position  of  Phoenicia,  "  the  sole 
medium  of  communication  between  the  Semitic 
race  and  the  rest  of  the  world,"  i  on  the  coast 
of  the  Mediterranean,  soon  brought  it  into  close 
commercial  relations  with   Egypt   and  Assyria. 

1  "Mercaturas  invenerunt  Poeni,"  Plin.,vii.,  p.  57.    See 
many  more  authorities  in  Movers,  ii.,  3,  p.  14. 

2  ii-,  3,  P.  21. 

3  Movers,  ?/.  s.,  p.  15. 

4  Renan,  p.  115. 


Land  Traffic.  109 

The  products  of  the  former  were  perhaps  the 
more  immediately  valuable,  but  the  trade  with 
the  latter  was  indirectly  the  most  extensive. 
For  through  its  territories  flowed  in  a  ceaseless 
stream  the  riches  of  the  remoter  East,  and  the 
spices  and  precious  stones  of  India  had  all  to  pass 
through  Tyre  or  Sidon  on  their  way  to  the  western 
world.  Movers  rates  so  highly  the  value  of  this 
commerce  in  the  earliest  times,  that  he  holds 
the  trade  of  Sidon  in  the  five  centuries  that 
preceded  her  capture  by  the  Philistines,  to  have 
been  equal  to  that  of  Tyre  in  its  palmiest  days.1 
It  was  carried  on  partly  by  means  of  colonies 
planted  along  the  most  frequented  routes,  partly 
by  settlements  of  Phoenician  traders  in  foreign 
towns,2  but  mainly,  perhaps,  by  the  travelling 
merchants,  going  from  fair  to  fair,  and  forming 
caravans  of  asses  and  mules  for  their  shorter 
journeys,  but  camels  and  dromedaries  when- 
ever they  had  to  cross  the  desert.3  These 
caravans  were  usually  managed  by  the  Arabs, 
so  that  the  prophet  was  describing  what  he  had 
seen  already,  in  a  measure,  when  he  said  of  the 

1  ii      "X   d    22 

2  Movers,  ii.,  3,  pp.  112 — 126. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  128,  and  the  Biblical  references  in  note  3a. 


1 1  o        Political  and  Social  Influence. 

future  glory  of  Israel,  "  The  stream  of  camels 
shall  cover  thee,  the  dromedaries  of  Midlan  and 
Ephah  ;  all  they  from  Sheba  shall  come  ;  they 
shall  brinsr  crold  and  incense."1  For  their  on- 
venience,  ''highways  in  the  desert'  had  been 
constructed  at  a  very  early  period,  and  supplied 
with  wells  and  caravanserais.2  Now  most,  and 
sometimes  all  of  these  routes,  passed  through 
the  land  of  the  children  of  Israel ;  and  apart 
from  the  strong  security  for  peace  between  the 
two  people  that  was  thus  afforded,  the  direct 
advantages  must  have  been  very  great.  The 
Phoenician  traders  would  gladly  save  themselves 
the  burden  of  carrying  provisions  with  them, 
until  they  reached  the  borders  of  the  desert,  and 
so  both  for  their  daily  needs,  and  also,  it  is 
probable,  for  their  stock  for  the  desert  journey, 
they  would  be  dependent  upon  the  Jewish 
peasant  proprietors  along  their  route.  Where 
they  could,  of  course   they  would  pay  in  their 

1  Isa.  lx.  6.  The  passage  gains  in  force  if  we  suppose 
(accepting  the  hypothesis  of  a  later  origin  for  Is.  xl. — lxvi.) 
that  the  prophet  was  writing  at  Babylon,  and  describing 
one  of  the  caravans  that  were  constantly  bringing  the 
wealth  of  the  desert  thither.  The  country  with  which  the 
historic  Isaiah  was  especially  familiar  would  lie  somewhat 
out  of  the  direct  line  of  this  commerce. 

2  Many  references  in  Movers,  ii.,  3,  p.  133. 


Value  of  Silver.  1 1 1 

own    manufactured    goods,   but   in    many  cases 
silver  would  be  preferred. 

The  extent  of  the  whole  trade  of  Phoenicia 
with  the  Holy  Land,  including  direct  and  im- 
mediate commerce,  as  well  as  this  traffic,  so  to 
speak,  en  passant,  may  be  guessed  at  by  the 
comparative  plenty  of  silver.  Even  in  the  time 
of  Abraham  it  was  far  from  uncommon,  and  its 
value  does  not  seem  to  have  been  excessively 
high.  It  is  the  recognized  currency:  the  patriarch 
buys  a  field  for  400  shekels  of  silver,  "  current 
with  the  merchant;"  and  all  the  pecuniary 
penalties  in  the  Mosaic  law  are  assessed  in  the 
same  way.  Now  when  we  remember  that  this 
was  long  before  the  age  of  barter  had  passed 
away  in  Greece  or  in  Persia,1  that  silver  is  very 
much  less  widely  distributed,  and  much  more 
difficult  to  procure  than  gold,  so  that  the  only 
important  silver-mines  known  before  the  dis- 
covery of  those  at  Laureum  were  the  mines  of 
Tarshish  ;  when  we  remember,  further,  that  all 
the    silver  drawn   from    this  source   must    have 

1  Perhaps  I  should  rather  have  written  Bactria,  for  the 
authority  on  which  I  speak  is  the  absence  of  any  men- 
tion of  money  in  the  Zend-Avesta.  Cp.  Movers,  //.  s., 
and  Schleicher's  Indogermanische  Chrestomathie,  p.  119, 
and  Compendium,  p.  5. 


112        Political  and  Social  Influence. 

passed  through  the  hands  of  the  Phoenicians,  we 
may  form  some  notion  of  the  extent  of  the 
traffic  with  Canaan,  which  made  silver  not  only 
the  established,  but  also  an  abundant  circulating 
medium.1 

The  direct  trade  of  Phoenicia  with  Israel  must 
have  been  very  extensive.  We  have  noticed 
already  the  immense  importance  of  the  produce 
of  Palestine  to  the  over-peopled  Phoenician  cities 
on  the  coast.  Then,  as  in  later  times,  "  their  coun- 
try was  nourished  by  the  king's  country."2  Hence 
we  naturally  find  that  Ezekiel  places  first  of  the 
the  articles  of  commerce,  Minnith  wheat,3  and 
Panneg  (possibly  millet).4  Indeed,  the  value  of 
this  trade  was  such  that  it  seems  to  have  been 
mainly  in  the  hands  of  the  kings,5  who  had  large 

i  See  Movers'  very  interesting  discussion  of  this  ques- 
tion, ii.,  3,  pp.  27—57. 

2  Acts  xii.  20. 

3  "  Judah  and  the  land  of  Israel  were  thy  merchants  : 
wheat  of  Minnith  and  Panneg,  grape-honey,  and  oil  and 
balsam,  they  brought  into  thy  markets."  Movers  thinks 
that  Minnith-wheat  had  come  to  be  used  as  a  generic 
name  for  the  finest  kind.     Cp.  ii.,  3,  p.  209. 

4  See  Kenrick,  p.  194,  note  6,  and  Diet.  Bible,  in  voc. 

5  We  may  compare  the  care  which  the  Roman  emperors 
exercised  over  the  corn-supply.  The  prcefectus  annonae 
was  one  of  the  three  most  important  officers  in  Rome. 
Cp.  Tac.  Ann.,  i.,  7,  with  Orelli's  note. 


Corn  and  Oil.  1 1 3 

crown  estates  themselves  in  the  plain  of  Sharon.1 
The  wheat  and  barley,  oil  and  wine,  which  Solo- 
mon eave  to  the  servants  of  Hiram,  were  but 
specimens  of  the  produce  that  was  always  flow- 
ing from  the  one  country  into  the  other.  In  the 
north  of  Palestine  they  were  conveyed  by  asses, 
the  usual  beasts  of  burden,  along  the  great  cara- 
van roads  ;  and  in  this  branch  of  commerce, 
remunerative,  but  sometimes  attended  with  de- 
grading subservience,  the  tribe  of  Issachar  took 
a  leading  part.  "  Issachar  is  a  strong  ass  couching 
down  between  two  burdens,  and  he  saw  that  rest 
was  good,  and  the  land  that  it  was  pleasant  ; 
and  he  bowed  his  shoulders  to  bear,  and  became 
a  servant  unto  tribute."2  The  southern  district, 
on  the  other  hand,  sent  its  produce  to  Joppa, 
whence  it  was  carried  by  sea  to  Tyre  and  Sidon. 
The  corn  trade  followed  the  same  line  for  centu- 
ries ;  we  find  that  even  under  the  Romans  the 
Jews  had  to  send  their  tribute  through  Joppa  to 
Sidon,   where  it  was  sold  for  the  benefit  of  the 

1  Movers,  ii.,  3,  p.  210  ;  ii.,  I,  pp.  314  and  524. 

2  See  above,  p.  51  ;  and  cp.  Movers,  ii.,  1,  p.  309/; 
Ewald,  ii.,  p.  327,  who  thinks  that  the  same  charge 
might  be  brought  against  the  other  northern  tribes,  but 
but  that  the  etymology  of  the  name  Issachar  {he  is  a 
hired  servant)  caused  him  to  be  selected. 

8 


1 14         Political  and  Social  Influence. 

imperial  exchequer.  Movers  by  an  elaborate 
calculation,  which  of  course  can  give  but  an 
approximation  to  the  truth,  in  the  state  of  our 
knowledge  on  the  subject,  estimates  the  value  of 
the  wheat  annually  sold  by  the  Jews  in  the 
market  of  Sidon  at  more  than  ^"2,000,000  ster- 
ling.1 The  trade  in  olive-oil  was  the  special 
source  of  the  wealth  of  southern  Palestine,  as 
the  corn  trade  was  to  the  northern  tribes  ;  for 
"  the  whole  hill  country  between  the  high  ridges 
of  mountains  on  which  Jerusalem  and  Hebron 
lie,  is  the  very  country  for  the  olive." 2  But 
from  its  very  abundance,  and  the  comparatively 
small  demand  for  it  where  it  was  produced,  its 
price  was  low,  and  the  chief  portion  of  the  profit 
must  have  been  made  by  the  Phoenicians,  who 
sold  it  into  foreign  lands,  where  its  reputation 
was  high,3  and  especially  to  Egypt,  where  the 
native  oil  was  bad.  Phoenicia  produced  so  much 
wine  itself,  that  it  would  have  little  occasion  to 
import  any,  so  that  this  department  of  commerce 


1  Movers,  ii.,  3,  p.  212/. 

2  Ritter,  quoted  by  Movers,  ii.,  3,  p.  215. 

3  Hosea  xii.  1  ;  Isaiah  lvii.  9.  But  in  the  latter  pas- 
sage Mr.  Cheyne  supposes  Baal  to  be  the  king  to  whom 
reference  is  made. 


Other  Exports  of  Palestine.  1 15 

seems  to  have  been  of  little  importance.1  On 
the  other  hand,  one  of  the  most  valuable  exports 
was  honey?  under  which  term  we  must  include 
not  only  the  produce  of  bees,  but  also  date- 
honey,3  and  a  kind  of  inspissated  grape-syrup, 
which  is  still  an  export  of  Palestine,  under  the 
name  of  dibs.  Among  the  other  articles  of  raw- 
produce  which  Phoenicia  obtained  from  the 
children  of  Israel  were  wool,  flax,  linen,  and 
the  much-debated  byssus.  The  wool  came 
naturally  from  the  hill  country  of  Gilead  and 
of  Judah,  while  the  flax  was  grown  in  abun- 
dance in  Galilee.  Both  were  of  great  im- 
portance for  the  Phoenicians,  whose  trade  con- 
sisted so  largely  of  dyed  goods.  But  the  raw 
material  generally  did  not  pass  into  their  hands 
before  it  had  been  woven  into  fabrics  of  various 
kinds,  the  Galilean  women  weaving  linen  espe- 

1  Hitzig  (referred  to  by  Renan,  p.  207)  has  pointed  out 
the  curious  fact  that  the  various  words  relating  to  wine 
among  the  Semites  are  not  Semitic.  Nothing  is  less 
likely  than  that  dtvos  was  borrowed  from  f^  ;  but  the  re- 
verse seems  probable.  See  Diet.  Bible,  hi.,  p.  1775^.  Cp. 
Curtius,  "  Griechische  Etymologie,"  p.  363. 

2  &y\   (Ezek.  xxvii.  17). 

3  Cp.  Plin.  xiii.  9,  Movers,  ii.,  3,  pp.  216  and  234,  note 
126,  with  Kenrick,  p.  194,  note  7. 


1 1 6        Political  and  Social  Influence. 

cially,  the  women  of  Judah  woollen  cloth.1  We 
may  remember  how  prominent  a  feature  this 
industry  is  made  in  the  picture  of  the  virtuous 
woman  given  in  the  Book  of  Proverbs.  That  it 
was  highly  profitable  is  shown  by  Movers  from 
a  passage  in  the  Mischna,  which  rates  the  weekly 
earnings  of  a  woman  at  from  five  to  ten  shekels 
of  silver.  The  linen  of  Palestine  seems  to  have 
been  particularly  famous  ;  at  a  later  time  we 
find  that  which  came  from  Scythopolis  ranking 
above  all  other  known  kinds.  Byssus,  which 
was  grown  in  Canaan  from  a  very  early  age, 
Movers  holds  to  have  been  a  kind  of  cotton, 
gathered  not  from  the  cotton-tree,  which  was 
not  known  till  a  later  period,  but  from  a  species 
of  annual  shrub.2  Whatever  it  may  have  been, 
it  furnished  another  article  of  commerce  for  the 
Phoenician  traders.  If  we  add  to  these  products 
dates,  resin  (the  so-called  balm  of  Gilead),  styrax, 
ladanum,  asphalt,  and,  most  precious  of  all,  the 

1  Movers,  ii.,  3,  pp.  216,  217. 

1  u. s.,  pp.  218,  219.  Cp.  Sir  J.  G.  Wilkinson's  note  to 
Herod.,  ii.,  p.  86,  note  6.  "  Byssus  in  its  real  sense  was 
cotton,  but  it  was  also  a  general  term."  On  the  other 
hand,  Mr.  Yates  (Textrinum  Antiquorum,  p.  276),  and 
Mr.  W.  A.  Wright  (Diet.  Bible,  ii.  p.  123^),  hold  that  it 
was  strictly  fine  linen. 


Imports  of  Palestine.  1 17 

true  balsam,  that  was  worth  twice  its  own  weight 
in  silver,  we  shall  have  completed  the  list  of  the 
principal  exports  of  the  land  of  Israel. 

Of  her  imports  from  Phoenicia  we  are  able  to 
form  a  less  definite  conception.  The  linen  and 
woollen  cloth  woven  by  the  women  of  Israel 
would  doubtless  be  brought  back  to  them  dyed 
in  the  famous  Tyrian  purples  ;  and  articles  of 
luxury  of  every  kind  would  be  carried  from 
house  to  house  by  the  Canaanitish  pedlars 
already  referred  to.  But  there  are  only  two 
important  items  of  commerce  on  which  we 
can  speak  with  definiteness.  In  Jerusalem  the 
Tyrians  had  established  a  trade  in  fish,1  probably 
the  salted  tunnies  of  the  Euxine,  that  were  a 
favourite  food  at  Athens,  possibly  even  the 
pickled  fish  of  Gades,  which  the  Carthaginians 
valued  so  highly  that  in  the  days  of  their  rule 
of  Spain  they  forbade  any  to  be  exported,  save 
to  their  own  metropolis.2  Besides  this,  we  may 
be  sure  that    it    was    from    Phoenicia    that    the 

1  Nehemiah  xiii.  16.  On  the  Phoenician  tunny-fisheries 
there  is  much  information  collected  in  Nilsson's  "  Die 
Ureinwohner  des  Scandinavischen  Nordens,"  pp.  75 — 77. 
Nilsson  holds  that  the  people  of  the  Bronze  Age  in 
Scandinavia  were  Phoenicians. 

2  Aristotle,  quoted  by  Kenrick,  p.  225. 


1 1 8        Political  and  Social  Influence. 

Israelites  derived  all  their  vessels  and  utensils  of 
bronze  ;  iron  they  had  apparently  in  their  own 
land  ; x  but  the  tin  which  was  absolutely  needful 
if  the  copper,  which  they  dug  out  of  the  hills,  was 
to  be  of  any  use  to  them,  could  only  reach  them 
from  the  few  and  distant  places  where  it  was 
found,2  by  the  agency  of  Phoenician  merchants.3 
In  inscriptions  of  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth 
dynasties  in  Egypt,  Phoenician  vases  of  bronze 
are  frequently  mentioned,  and  figured  in  the 
wall-paintings.4  Glass-making  and  pottery  were 
arts  in  which  the  natives  of  Sidon  excelled  ;  and 
articles  of  jewellery  and  carved  ivory,  found  in 
the  recent  excavation,  show  the  skill  and  taste 
to  which  they  had  attained.  It  is  probable  that 
the  ornaments  of  the  Jewish  women,  of  which  we 
have  so  long  a  catalogue  in  Isaiah  (iii.  18 — 23), 
were    almost   all    of   Phoenician   workmanship.3 

1  Deut.  viii.  9,  "  whose  stones  are  iron." 

2  Kenrick,  p.  2\iff. 

3  M.  Lenormant  (ii.,  pp.  157,  158)  has  some  very  good 
remarks,  chiefly  taken  from  M.  de  Rougemont's  L'Age 
du  Bronze,  mi  les  Semites  en  Occident,  on  the  early  im- 
portance of  the  tin-trade  ;  but  it  would  take  us  too  far 
from  our  immediate  subject  to  follow  him. 

4  Lenormant,  ii.,  p.  215. 

5  Cp.  Heeren,  "  Historische  Werke,"  xi.  94,  notet  ;  and 
Nilsson,  "  Das  Bronzealter, — Nachtrag,"  p.  32. 


Imports.  1 1 9 

But  when  we  have  given  due  weight  to  all  these 
various  imports,  there  will  probably  be  a  balance 
of  trade  against  the  Phoenicians,  to  be  adjusted 
by  payments  in  silver ;  and  this  supposition  is 
confirmed  by  the  fact  that  we  can  trace  a  marked 
depreciation  in  the  comparative  value  of  silver 
during  the  Jewish  history.1 

One  very  important  branch  of  the  trade  of 
Phoenicia  with  Israel  remains  to  be  spoken  of, 
that  is,  the  trade  in  slaves.  The  Phoenicians 
were  known  as  slave-dealers  from  the  earliest 
times.  Reference  has  been  made  already  to  the 
passages  in  which  Homer  speaks  of  their  kid- 
napping young  princes  and  princesses,  to  sell 
them  across  the  seas.  The  chorus  in  the  Helena 
of  Euripides  is  composed  of  maidens  who  had 
been  brought  to  the  Egyptian  market  by  Phoe- 
nician merchants.  Numberless  other  instances 
could  be  quoted  to  the  same  effect ; 2  it  will  be 
sufficient  to  notice  the  fact  (which  rests  upon  the 
authority  of  Strabo)  that  at  Delos,  their  prin- 
cipal centre  for  the  western  trade,  10,060  slaves 
had  been  known  to  be  sold  in  a  single  day.  We 
cannot    doubt   that    a   large  proportion    of  the 

1  1  Kings  x.  21,  27  ;  but  cp.  Movers,  ii.,  3,  p.  39. 

2  Cp.  Movers,  ii.,  3,  pp.  70 — 86. 


1 20        Political  and  Social  Influence. 

slaves  that  they  brought  with  them  from  Tyre 
or  Sidon  were  drawn  from  the  land  of  Israel. 
It  is  true  that  our  earliest  Greek  authorities  do 
not  make  any  distinct  mention  of  Hebrew 
slaves  ;  but  it  is  highly  probable  that  they 
ranked  them  under  the  wider  name  of  Syrians, 
which  occurs  in  this  connection  very  frequently. 
In  the  earliest  times  this  commerce  seems  to 
have  been  the  most  extensive;  under  the  Judges, 
several  of  the  northern  tribes,  as  we  have  seen 
above,  were  at  least  partially  in  subjection  to  the 
Phoenicians,1  and  others  were  rendered  incapable 
of  resistance  by  the  oppression  of  the  Philistines. 
At  the  same  time,  in  the  impoverished  and  un- 
settled condition  of  the  Hebrew  nation,  the  ties 
of  commerce  would  not  be  so  binding  as  they 
afterwards  became.  It  was  probably  in  the 
reign  of  David  or  of  Solomon  that  the  treaty 
was  made,  to  which  we  have  afterwards  refer- 
ences, to  the  effect  that  the  Phoenicians  should 
not  carry  Hebrew  slaves  out  of  the  country 
against  their  will2  But  after  the  disruption  of 
Solomon's  empire,  we  find  bitter  complaints 
uttered    by    the    prophets    against  the   Tyrians 

1  See  Movers,  ii.,  1,  pp.  306^  and  above,  p.  52. 

2  Movers,  ii.,  1,  p.  313. 


Slave-trade.  121 

because  they  had  "forgotten  the  covenant  of 
brethren,"  1  and  kidnapped  the  sons  of  Judah 
and  the  sons  of  Jerusalem  to  sell  them  to  the 
Grecians.  And  when  the  final  overthrow  came, 
we  can  fancy  the  Phoenician  merchants  flocking 
to  the  camp  of  the  Assyrian  or  Chaldean  army, 
just  as  we  find  them  following  in  the  train  of 
Alexander  even  as  far  as  India,2  and  buying, 
in  the  forcible  language  of  Joel,  "  a  boy  for  the 
hire  of  a  harlot,  and  a  girl  for  a  draught  of  wine." 
Doubtless  there  were  many  razzias  made  into 
Galilee,  during  the  early  and  unsettled  times, 
with  the  express  view  of  carrying  off  slaves  ;  the 
Canaanites  who  dwelt  in  the  land  might  often 
be  willing,  when  they  had  the  upper  hand,  as 
was  not  seldom  the  case,  to  sell  the  subjected 
Israelites  to  their  kinsmen  on  the  coast  ;  and 
further  than  this,  we  find  traces  of  the  custom 
that  a  man  sold  not  only  his  children,  but  even 
himself  into  slavery.3  But  on  the  whole  it  seems 
that  we  must  confine  this  trade  to  the  time  of 
the  decline  of  the  Jewish  kingdoms,  and  to  the 

1  Amos  i.  9  ;  Joel  iii.  6. 

2  Arrian,  Anab.  vi.,  22.  So  also  a  thousand  slave- 
dealers  followed  the  Syrian  General  Nicanor  in  his  cam- 
paign against  Judas  Maccabasus,  1  Mace.  iii.  41. 

3  Exod.  xxi.  7  ;  Lev.  xxv.  39. 


122        Political  and  Social  Influence. 

period  which  preceded  the  establishment  of  the 
monarchy. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  was  just  during  the 
reigns  of  prosperous  princes,  and  especially 
that  of  Solomon,  that  the  Phoenicians  had  the 
most  powerful  and  beneficial  influence  in  ex- 
tending the  commerce  of  the  Israelites.  The 
empire  of  Solomon,  as  has  been  noticed  already, 
commanded  all  the  main  caravan  roads  that 
led  into  Phoenicia,  and  a  mutual  understand- 
ing between  the  two  nations  was  thereby  ren- 
dered necessary.  This  seems  to  have  taken  the 
form  of  mutual  concession.  At  least  we  find 
that  the  Phoenicians,  though  long  in  exclusive 
possession  of  the  extremely  profitable  trade  with 
Arabia,  and  so  with  India,1  did  not  make  any 
attempt  to  check  the  formidable  rivalry  of  the 
newly-established  ports  of  Ezion-geber  and 
Elath  ;  but  that  Hiram  sent  thither,  for  the  use 
of  Solomon,  "  ships,  and  servants  that  had  know- 
ledge of  the  sea  ;  and  they  went  with  the  ser- 
vants of    Solomon  to  Ophir,2  and  took  thence 

1  Movers,  ii.,  i,  p.  332. 

2  The  best  authorities  (Lassen,  Ritter,  Ewald,  etc.) 
place  Ophir  in  India  ;  others  hold  it  to  have  been 
Arabia,  and  to  this  opinion  Mr.  Twistleton  in  the  Dic- 
tionary of  the  Bible   inclines.     The  question  is  of  little 


Trade  by  Sea.  123 

four  hundred  and  fifty  talents  of  gold,  and 
brought  them  to  king  Solomon."1  Here  we  have 
an  instance  of  friendly  co-operation  which  might 
have  been  thought  a  priori  exceedingly  impro- 
bable. On  the  other  hand,  the  Jews  do  not 
seem  to  have  made  any  attempt  to  enter  into 
rivalry  with  the  Phoenicians  with  respect  to  their 
Mediterranean  trade.  Joppa  might  perhaps  have 
been  made  available  as  a  harbour  sufficiently 
good  for  the  purpose,  though  it  is  at  best  but  a 
dangerous  one.  But  the  numerous  stories  which 
we  have  of  the  extreme  jealousy  with  which  the 
Phoenicians  kept  to  themselves  the  knowledge 
of  the  navigation  of  the  western  seas,2  incline  us 
very  little  to  believe  that  they  would  have  al- 
lowed any  other  nation,  however  closely  allied 
to  them,  to  share  their  profitable  secrets.  The 
case  of  the  Arabian  trade  was  different,  because 
they  had  never  had  intercourse  with  these  fertile 
regions  except  by  land  ;  and  they  would  have 
lost  much  more  by  the  interruption  of  this  traffic 


importance  to  the  present  discussion.     Cp.  Ewald,  iii., 
p.  77  ;  Max  Miiller,  Lectures,  i.,  p.  202^" 

1  2  Chron.  viii.  18,  cp.  ix.  10,  and  1  Kings  ix.  27. 

2  See   Kenrick,  p.  190.     Blakesley's  Herodotus,  Intro- 
duction. 


124        Political  and  Social  Influence. 

than  they  could  have  lost  by  the  rivalry  of  any 
sea-traders,  especially  when  they  seem  them- 
selves to  have  enjoyed  equal  privileges  with  the 
latter.  It  is  generally  admitted  now  that  "the 
navy  of  Tarshish  "  spoken  of  in  the  Biblical  nar- 
rative only  denotes  large  ships,  such  as  those 
that  used  to  be  sent  to  Tarshish,  and  does  not 
by  any  means  imply  any  direct  commerce  on 
the  part  of  Solomon  with  Tartessus.1  That  this 
navy  did  not  go  to  Spain  is  evident  from  the 
mention  of  ivory,  apes,  and  peacocks  among  the 
things  that  were  brought  back  in  it.2 

If  we  now  come  to  consider  what  was  the 
effect  of  this  constant  and  extensive  commerce 
between  Phoenicia  and  Israel,  we  shall  find  it 
very  various  and  far-reaching.  There  is  of 
course,  in  the  first  place,  the  purely  economic 
effect.  The  one  great  benefit  arising  from  inter- 
national commerce  is  that  each  nation  is  hereby 
enabled  to  employ  its  productive  forces    more 

i  Cp.  Ewald,  iii.,  p.  76,  note  1  ;  Kenrick,  p.  357.  This 
supposition  however  implies  an  error  on  the  part  of  the 
writer  of  2  Chron.  ix.  21.  Cp.  (or  contrast)  E.  H.  P.  in 
Diet.  Bible,  iii.,  p.  1347^,  and  E.  T.,  ib.,  1440^. 

2  With  all  Ewald's  dogmatism,  it  is  hardly  fair  for  Mr. 
Plumptre  to  pass  this  objection  of  his  over  without  dis- 
cussion as  "  arbitrary." 


Influence  of  Commerce.  125 

efficiently, — that  is  to  say,  each  produces  a 
larger  amount  of  wealth  than  it  would  otherwise 
have  produced,  because  each  nation  is  able  to 
devote  its  energies  wholly  to  that  which  it  can 
do  best,  leaving  any  needs  that  this  does  not 
satisfy  to  be  met  by  supplies  from  without.1 
The  nation  of  Israel  was  much  the  wealthier, 
because  it  was  able  to  give  itself  almost  entirely 
to  agriculture  and  the  simpler  form  of  manu- 
facture, leaving  the  finer  manufactures  and  the 
products  of  more  elaborate  art  to  be  furnished 
by  Phoenicia.  And  wealth  so  acquired  brings 
with  it  a  certain  increase  in  civilization.  Tastes 
are  developed,  ideas  enlarged,  and  graceful 
forms  and  beautiful  colours  brought  into  homes 
which  would  otherwise  have  remained  in  igno- 
rant simplicity.  But  advantages  of  this  kind 
may  easily  be  bought  too  dear.  The  first  and 
plainest  result  was  perhaps  the  most  conspicuous 
in  the  northern  kingdom.  The  gulf  between 
the  rich  and  the  poor  became  widened  ;  the 
former  in  the  luxury  and  wantonness  of  their 
life  gave  way  to  drunkenness  and  licentiousness 
of  every  kind,   and  the  latter   were    oppressed 

1  That  this  is  the  true  view  is  clearly  shown  by  Air. 
Mill,  Political  Economy,  book  hi.,  c.  xvii.,  §  5. 


126        Political  and  Social  Influence. 

and    down-trodden    miserably.      The    prophets 
who   were  sent    to   the   land    of   Israel  shortly 
before    the    fall  of  Samaria,   give  us   a  terrible 
picture  of  the  moral  degradation  of  the  people. 
"  They   have  erred  through  wine,  and   through 
strong   drink    are   gone   out    of  the    way ;   the 
priest  and  the  prophet  have  erred  through  strong 
drink,   they  are  swallowed  up  with  wine,   they 
are  out  of  the  way  through  strong  drink  ;  they 
err  in  vision,  they  stumble  in  giving  judgment : 
for  all  places  are  full  of  vomit  and  filthiness,  so 
that  there  is  no  place  clean."1  Even  great  ladies, 
who   are   compared  to  the   fat  cows   or  heifers 
of  Bashan,    that   fed    on  the  rich  mountains  of 
Samaria,  say  to  their  lords,  "  Bring  and  let  us 
drink."2     The  Lord  had  a  controversy  with  the 
inhabitants    of    the    land,    because    there    was 
neither  truth  nor  mercy  nor  knowledge  of  God  ; 
only  by   swearing   and    lying   and   killing   and 
stealing  and  committing  adultery,  one  vast  inun- 
dation of  crime  was  sweeping  over  the  country.3 
Of  course  all  this  was  not  the  result  solely  of  the 
influx  of  wealth.     But  it  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  it  was  mainly,   if  not  entirely,  due  to  the 

i  Is.  xxviii.  7,  ,8.  3  Hosea,  iv.  i,  2  (Pusey). 

2  Stanley,  ii.,  p.  359. 


3 f oral  Corruption.  127 

Phoenician  influence,  and  that  this  influence  was 
immensely  strengthened  by  the  material  advan- 
tages of  a  close  connection  with  the  cities  of  the 
coast.  The  house  of  Omri  had  greatly  pro- 
moted the  influx  of  the  foreign  civilization  by 
the  marriage  of  Ahab  with  Jezebel,  daughter  of 
Ethbaal,  and  had  extended  it  to  the  southern 
kingdom  by  the  alliance  of  Athaliah  with  Je- 
horam,  the  son  of  Jehoshaphat.  And  Athaliah, 
"matre  turpi  filia  turpior,"  guided  her  son  Ahaziah 
in  the  ways  of  the  house  of  Ahab,  for  his  mother 
was  his  counsellor  to  do  wickedly.1  But  how- 
ever great  the  effect  of  these  unholy  alliances 
may  have  been  for  the  time,  we  cannot  doubt 
that  the  main  cause  of  the  evil  lay  much  deeper 
and  was  far  more  permanent.  It  was  not  the 
example  of  one  or  two  powerful  and  wicked 
queens  that  could  taint  the  fountain  of  the 
nation's  life.  There  was  a  large  leaven  of  the 
old  Canaanite  element  left  in  the  land  by  the 
cowardice,  sloth,  and  disobedience  of  the  earliest 
conquerors,  which  must  have  been  constantly 
exercising  a  corrupting  influence.  But  the  most 
pernicious  action  was  probably  that  of  the 
traders  brought  into  the  land  by  the  commerce 

1  2  Chron.  xxii.  4. 


128        Political  and  Social  Influence. 

with  Phoenicia.  Many  of  these  were  only  travel- 
ling merchants,  but  their  repeated  visits  would 
not  be  without  effect.  In  the  first  place,  we 
have  reason  to  believe  that  their  commercial 
morality  was  low  ;  "  Phoenician  lies"  were  pro- 
verbial,1 and  wherever  violence  was  out  of  the 
question  (as  must  have  been  usually  the  case 
in  their  dealings  with  the  Israelites)  they  would 
have  recourse  to  any  mean  and  dishonest  trickery 
to  secure  the  enormous  profits  which  their 
trade  seems  generally  to  have  brought  them.2 
Perhaps  the  originators,  certainly  the  most  in- 
fluential disseminators,  of  that  system  of  weights 
and  measures  which,  under  the  name  of  "  Baby- 
lonian" (as  Bockh3  has  shown)  was  widely  cur- 
rent in  the  East,  it  may  well  be  supposed  that 
they  would  often  take  advantage  of  the  igno- 
rance and  simplicity  of  the  rustic  population  to 
defraud  them  for  their  own  advantage.  We 
have  seen  in  our  own  time,  and  unhappily  some- 
times with  our  own  countrymen,  too  many 
instances  of  the  evil  wrought  by  unfair  dealing 

1  See  quotations  in  Kenrick,  p.  190,  and  Movers,  ii.,  3, 
p.  105. 

2  Cp.  Hosea  xii.   8  :   "As  for  the  Canaanite,  deceitful 
balances  are  in  his  hand." 

3  "  Metrologische  Untersuchungen,"  Abschn.  viii. 


Objects  of  Art.  129 

with  native  tribes,  at  first  unsuspecting,  and 
then  all-suspecting,  to  fail  to  recognize  the  mis- 
chief that  must  have  been  done  in  this  way  by 
the  Phoenician  merchants  to  their  Palestinian 
neighbours. 

But  this  was  not  all.  The  wares  in  which 
they  dealt  were  often  not  less  pernicious  than 
their  method  of  dealing.  The  character  of  a 
nation's  art  cannot  fail  to  be  deeply  affected  by 
the  nature  of  its  religion  ;  and  when  we  come  to 
see  what  the  religion  of  the  Phoenicians  was,  we 
shall  be  able  to  understand  that  the  numerous 
objects  of  art  that  they  were  constantly  bring- 
ing into  Israel  may  have  tended  greatly  to 
corrupt  it.  There  are  chambers  in  the  Museo 
Borbonico  which  show  us  that  what  has  now  to 
be  hidden  away  from  the  eyes  of  men,  was  even 
in  the  Italian  cities  freely  presented  in  the  orna- 
ments and  even  the  utensils  of  ordinary  life. 
What  was  possible  in  Pompeii  and  Hercula- 
neum  is  hardly  likely  to  have  been  wanting  in 
the  factories  of  Tyre  and  Sidon."  The  famous 
Sidonian  nwAoi,  necklaces,  earrings,  and  brace- 
lets, may  have  been,  and  probably  were,  all 
wrought  so  as  to  do  honour  to  the  deities  of 
Phoenicia,  and  grievous  dishonour  to  the  Holy 

9 


130       Political  and  Social  Influence. 

One  of  Israel,  who  is  of  purer  eyes  than  to  look 
upon  iniquity.1 

But  besides  these  travelling  "  Canaanites," 
there  were  other  merchants  who  were  settlers  in 
the  land  for  a  longer  time,  and  whose  influence 
would  be  the  more  powerful,  as  it  was  so  con- 
tinuous.2 In  the  later  times  they  seem  to  have 
been  confined  to  a  suburb  "before  the  gate"  of  the 
town,  which  they  chose  for  their  habitation,  but 
there  are  many  traces  in  the  earlier  literature  of 
their  residence  in  the  midst  of  the  burghers.3 
The  luxury  and  at  the  same  time  the  shameless 
profligacy  of  these  wealthy  resident  merchants 
are  strikingly  depicted  in  the  account  of  the 
strange  [i.e.  foreign]  woman  in  the  Book  of  Pro- 
verbs, "which  flattereth  with  her  words."4  Her 
husband  is  evidently  a  trader  who  has  gone  his 
rounds  to  make  purchases  in  the  country  dis- 
tricts, which  he  will  bring  back  to  the  city  by 
the   day  appointed,  i.e.  (according  to   the  mar- 

1  Cp.  Movers,  i.,  p.  52. 

2  Movers  has  collected  many  passages  relating  to  this 
class  of  traders  in  vol.  ii.,  part  3,  pp.   112— 126.     Cp.  i., 

p.  49# 

3  Cp.  Neh.   xiii.  16,  20,  and  Zeph.  i.    10,   11,  with  Zach. 
xiv.  21,  Joel  iv.  17  ;   and  see  Movers,  ii.,  3,  p.  202. 

4  Cp.  the  use  of peregrina  in  Donat.  ad  Ter.  Eunuch., 
i.,  2,  27  ;  and  see  Movers,  i.,  p.  53. 


Resident  Merchants.  1 3  1 

ginal  rendering  and  De  Wette)  in  time  for  the 
fair  at  the  appearance  of  the  new  moon.1  Well 
might  the  wise  king  utter  his  words  of  warning 
against  this  foreign  temptress,  "  for  she  hath 
cast  down  many  wounded  ;  yea,  many  strong 
men  have  been  slain  by  her.  Her  house  is  the 
way  to  the  grave,  going  down  to  the  chambers 
of  death."  That  these  alluring  but  accursed 
portals  were  open  in  every  city,  was  due  in  no 
small  measure  to  the  influence  of  the  Phoenician 
commerce. 

But  where  the  Tyrian  and  Sidonian  mer- 
chants were  gathered,  as  often,  in  large  commu- 
nities, other  and  still  more  dangerous  influences 
were  brought  to  work.  For  we  find  it  a  constant 
article  of  stipulation  in  the  commercial  treaties 
that  have  been  preserved  to  us,  that  the  settlers 
should  live  in  the  free  exercise  of  their  national 
customs  and  religion.  This  involved  the  erec- 
tion of  shrines  to  Baal  and  Moloch,  the  dedi- 
cation of  proves  to  Astarte,  and  therewith  the 
constant  presence  of  a  fascinating  kind  of 
temptation,  before  the  eyes  of  a  people  already 
disposed  to  fall  before  it.  The  "high  places 
which  were  before  Jerusalem,  which  were  on  the 
On  these  fairs  see  Movers,  ii.,  3,  pp.  135^  146. 


132        Political  and  Social  Influence. 

right  hand  of  the  mount  of  corruption,  which 
Solomon  the  king  of  Israel  had  builded  for 
Ashtoreth  the  abomination  of  the  Sidonians,"1 
may  have  had  their  origin  in  the  idolatrous 
wishes  of  one  of  his  wives  ;  but  they  were  cer- 
tainly maintained  during  the  centuries  which 
elapsed  before  they  were  destroyed  by  Josiah, 
by  the  Tyrian  merchants  who  dwelt  in  the 
quarter  of  Jerusalem  known  as  Machtesh.8  It 
is  probable  indeed  that  Josiah  was  emboldened 
to  take  this  step  by  the  fact  that  his  hostility 
to  Egypt  necessarily  involved  a  breach  of  all 
friendly  relations  with  Phoenicia.3  The  subse- 
quent section  of  this  essay  will  furnish  a  more 
fit  occasion  for  discussing  the  influence  of  this 
worship  at  length.  It  will  be  sufficient  here  to 
notice  that  this  was  probably  the  greatest  of  all 
the  curses  that  Phoenician  intercourse  brought 
upon  the  Jews,  sapping  their  national  life  at  its 
very  basement,  and  by  inevitable  laws  bringing 
upon  them  the  degradation,  the  ruin,  and  the 
shame  that  must  visit  every  nation,  in  these  days 


1  2  Kings  xxiii.  13. 

2  Cp.  Zeph.  i.  1 1  (with  Henderson's  note),  and  Movers, 
i.,  p.  50. 

5  See  above,  p.  84. 


Temptations  to  Vice.  133 

as  in  days  of  old,  where  vice  is  identified  with 
pleasure,  and  woman  has  grown  impure. 

Mr.   Gladstone  has  probably  gone  much  too 
far  in  assigning  almost  all   that  is  evil  in   the 
religion  of  Greece  to  Phoenician  influence.1     If  it 
would  not  lead  too  far  from  the  present  subject, 
it  would  be  easy  to  show,  on  the  one  hand,  that 
many  of  the  myths  which  he  regards  as  Phoe- 
nician are  the  common  property   of  the  Aryan 
race,   and,  on   the    other   hand,    that  pure    and 
beautiful  as   they  were   at   the  beginning,  they 
were  yet  capable  cf  a   natural,  and  all  but  in- 
evitable misinterpretation,  which  should  change 
their  fresh  young  grace  into  loathsome  foulness. 
But  whatever  may  have  been  the  case  with  the 
Greeks,  it  cannot   be  doubted  that  to  the    He- 
brew nation  the  Phoenicians  played  the  part  of 
the  serpent  in  the  Mosaic  account  of  primitive 
man.      They  gave    to    the    simple    tribes,    pre- 
served,  if  not  in   innocence,    at    least    in    com- 
parative purity,  by  the  hardy  life  of  the  desert, 
the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good 
and  evil,  and   they  did  eat.     And  the  eyes  at 
least  of  the  noblest  among  them,  the  "  Seers," 

1  Quarterly  Review,  January,  1 868,  and  Juventus  Mundi, 
passim. 


134        Political  and  Social  Influence. 

were  opened,  and  they  were  ashamed,  and  the 
burning  language  which  gushed  forth  from 
them1  remains  to  us  still  as  the  most  impres- 
sive warning  to  those  who  for  love  of  luxury,  of 
sloth,  or  of  lust  forsake  their  fathers'  God,  and 
turn  to  the  idols  that  are  worshipped  by  those 
who  seem  to  be  prospering  round  about  them. 

But  there  is  another  and  a  brighter  side  to  this 
page  in  the  history  of  the  Chosen  People,  which 
it  were  faithless  not  to  recognize.  As  the  Fall 
was,  in  Schiller's  daring  words,  a  gigantic  stride 
in  the  development  of  humanity,  so  that  which 
is  in  some  respects  its  antitype  in  Hebrew  his- 
tory can  be  and  ought  to  be  regarded  in  the 
same  light.  Those  whose  joy  it  is  to  trace,  so 
far  as  they  may,  the  methods  of  the  Divine 
education  of  the  world,  will  not  fail  to  notice 
how,  after  the  centuries  of  national  vice  and 
ever-increasing  degradation  had  borne  their 
bitter  fruit  in  the  desolation  of  the  national  life, 
the  Jewish  people  came  forth  from  the  trial 
weakened,   scattered,  and   all   but  crushed,   but 

1  The  literal  meaning  of  the  Hebrew  word  for  "  prophet" 
seems  to  be  "  one  who  involuntarily  bursts  forth  with 
spiritual  utterances."  See  Gesenius  in  voc.  Nabi,  and 
Stanley,  vol.  i.,  lect.  xix. 


Ultimate  Results.  135 

henceforth  never  to  be  shaken  in  their  fidelity  to 
the  One  Living  God.  and  never  as  a  nation  to 
relapse  into  the  sensual  vice  inseparable  from 
Eastern  idolatry.1  We  may  venture  to  believe 
that  the  struggle  of  the  Church  with  the  moral 
corruption  of  pagan  Greece  and  Rome  was 
greatly  aided  by  the  fact  that  it  found  in  every 
city  a  leaven  of  faithful  Jewish  preachers  of 
chastity  and  self-control.  And  this  the  Jews 
could  never  have  become,  had  they  not  been 
suffered  to  drink  to  the  bitter  dresrs  the  Circe 
cup  of  the  great  Phoenician  enchantress,  by 
whose  sorceries  the  nations  were  deceived. 

1  "  The  results  of  this  discipline  of  the  Jewish  nation 
may  be  summed  up  in  two  points — a  settled  national 
belief  in  the  unity  and  spirituality  of  God,  and  an  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  paramount  importance  of  chastity 
as  a  point  of  morals." — The  Bishop  of  Exeter,  in  "  Essays 
and  Reviews,"  p.  11.  It  is  perhaps  worth  while  adding, 
that  the  passage  in  the  text,  and  a  similar  one  at  the  close 
of  the  following  chapter,  were  written  eight  or  nine  years 
after  I  had  read  Dr.  Temple's  essay,  when  all  conscious 
recollection  of  his  argument  had  been  lost  ;  and  that  it 
was  only  on  reading  the  essay  again  that  I  found  how 
completely  his  view  coincided  with  that  to  which  an 
entirely  different  course  of  discussion  had  appeared  to 
lead. 


136 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE   RELIGION   OF   PHOENICIA,   AND   ITS 
INFLUENCE   UPON    ISRAEL. 

Early  Monotheism,  Aryan  and  Semitic — Traces  of  Polytheism — 
Israel  in  Egypt — Tendency  to  Idolatry  there — Their  Religious 
Condition  in  the  Desert — The  Religion  of  Canaan  and 
Phoenicia — Baal  worshipped  under  various  aspects — Worship 
of  Ashtoreth — El  worshipped  by  all  Semitic  Nations — History 
of  Baal-worship  in  Israel — Conclusion. 

^HE  recent  researches  of  comparative  my- 
-*-  thologists  carry  us  back  to  a  period  in  the 
history  of  the  Aryan  races  of  which  it  may  be 
said  that  polytheism  was  not  yet  in  existence. 
The  purely  philological  arguments  of  M.  Pictet,1 
deeply  interesting  as  they  are,  would  not  of 
themselves  perhaps  carry  conviction  with  them. 
But  more  value  may  be  attached  to  the  con- 
clusions which  are  drawn  from  a  study  of  the 
oldest  remains  of  literature.     Homer  has  more 

i  Les  Aryas   Primitifs,  vol.   ii.,  pp.  652 — 660,  and  pp. 
707—728. 


Arya?i  Monotheism.  137 

than  one  passage  in  which  the  light  of  a  purer 
faith  is  seen  struggling  through  the  clouds  and 
darkness    of  a    comparatively  late    mythology. 
And  the  Vedas  speak  in  yet  clearer  language. 
We  find  there,  it  is  true,  the  names  of  several 
gods  ;  by  the  side   of  the  supreme   Dyaus  are 
Indra,  and  Varuna,   Surya  and  Vishnu,  to  say 
nothing   of  more   evident  personifications,    like 
Agni     and     the    Maruts.     But    Professor    Max 
Miiller  has  taught  us  to  see  in  these  no  distinct 
abandonment  of  the  faith  in  the  One  Supreme. 
Rather,  the  worshipper  in  every  case  addresses 
himself  to  that  embodiment  of  the  Divine  and 
Invisible   Spirit  to  which   his  thoughts  at    the 
time  were   most  immediately  directed.     Some- 
times   he    regards    Him    as    the    all-embracing 
heaven,   "  hoc  sublimen  candens,   quern   omnes 
inuocant   Iouem  ;  "  1  sometimes  as  the  life-giving 
sun  ;  sometimes  again  as  the  Lord  of  Thunder, 
that    dashes    apart   with    his    bolt    the    stormy 
clouds,  and  makes  them  yield  to  men  the  trea- 
sures of  rain  that  they  bear  within  them.     But 
in  all  cases  it  seems  to  be  the  One  Great  God 
to  whom  he  is  offering  his  prayers  and  praises, 
putting  out  of  his  mind  entirely  for  the  time  the 

1  Ennius  in  Cic.  de  Nat.  Deor.,  ii.,  §  4. 


1 3  8  Religious  Influence. 

other  forms  in  which  the  Deity  is  supposed  to 
manifest  Himself  to  mortals.  It  is  easy  to  see 
how  this  poetic  language  would  become  in  time 
the  natural  parent  of  a  numerous  and  finally  a 
debasing  progeny  of  legends.  But  the  great  gift 
which  comparative  mythology,  the  youngest  of 
the  sciences,  has  given  to  us,  is  the  increased 
conviction  that  it  was  not  with  the  vile  and 
shameful,  but  rather  with  the  pure  and  simple, 
if  as  yet  all  vague  and  childlike  thoughts  of 
the  Divine,  that  the  souls  of  our  earliest  pro- 
genitors were  filled.  Unfortunately,  we  have 
not  hitherto  succeeded  in  obtaining  anything 
like  the  same  amount  of  evidence  with  re- 
gard to  the  early  beliefs  of  the  Semitic  peoples. 
But  all  the  indications  that  we  are  able  to  find 
seem  to  be  converging  towards  a  period  of  a 
somewhat  similar  creed.  M.  Renan  delights 
to  dwell  upon  the  "  natural  instinct  '  of  the 
Semitic  peoples  towards  monotheism  j1  but  the 
facts  of  the  case  bear  out  his  theory  only  to  a 
very  limited  extent.  It  is  true  that  the  branch 
of  the  Semites  which  he  calls  the  Terachites  (the 

1  In  his  "  Histoire  des  Langues  Semitiques,"  and  in  a 
separate  brochure,  "  Nouvelles  Considerations  sur  le  Ca- 
ractere  general  des  peuples  Semitiques,  et  en  particulier 
sur  leur  Tendance  au  Monotheisme." 


Semitic  Monotheism.  139 

sons  of  Terah),  has  remained  for  the  most  part 
faithful  to  its  belief  in  the  One  God  ;  but  with 
the  second,  the  "  political ':  branch,  the  reverse 
is  notoriously  the  case.  Professor  Max  Miiller 
has  attacked  M.  Renan's  theory  of  a  "  mono- 
theistic instinct,"  with  all  his  wonted  ability,1 
and  traces  the  comparative  absence  of  poly- 
theism among  the  Semites  to  their  freedom 
from  the  allurements  of  mythological  language  ; 
but  the  firm  adhesion  to  the  unity  of  the  Deity 
to  a  special  revelation  made  to  Abraham.  Be 
this  as  it  may,  we  find  in  the  earliest  times 
among  the  Semites  just  the  same  tendency,  as 
among  the  Aryans,  to  regard  the  Divine  Spirit  as 
embodying  Himself  under  various  forms  for  the 
worship  of  individual  nations.  This  was  pro- 
bably  not  so  much  the  recognition  of  different 
gods,  as  the  acknowledgment  that  different 
nations  might  worship  the  same  great  Power 
under  various  names  and  aspects.  But  by 
degrees,  at  least  with  the  Hebrews,  the  concep- 
tion was  somewhat  modified  ;  and  they  seem  to 
have  come  to  the  belief  that  there  were  many 
gods,  each  with  his  own  nation,  to  watch  over 
and    support    to    the    best    of    his    power,    but 

1  Chips,  etc.,  i.,  pp.  342—380. 


140  Religious  Influence. 

that  their  own  God,  Jehovah,  or  rather  Jahveh, 
was  by  far  the  greatest  of  all  in  power  and 
purity.  We  know,  for  instance,  that  Terah  and 
his  family  served  "  other  gods  "  than  the  God  of 
Abraham,1  and  that  in  the  days  of  Joshua  it 
might  be  at  least  regarded  as  an  open  question 
whether  the  nation  should  serve  these  deities  of 
their  early  ancestors,  or  the  gods  of  the  Amo- 
rites,  in  whose  land  they  dwelt,  or  Jahveh,  the 
God  of  the  Mosaic  law.  And  though  the  na- 
tion, animated  and  impressed  by  the  noble 
words  of  Joshua,  renewed  their  covenant  with 
Jahveh,  "who  had  brought  them  out  of  Egypt," 
still  we  can  see  that  this  was  not  regarded  as 
the  only  possible  alternative.  There  was  danger 
not  only  of  forsaking  Jahveh,  but  also  of  serving 
other  gods,  the  gods  of  the  nations  round  them. 
Monotheism,  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  term, 
can  scarcely  be  regarded  as  the  "  instinct  "  of  a 
people  to  whom  the  challenge  of  Joshua  was 
possible.  Traces  of  the  same  feeling  are  to  be 
found  late  in  the  subsequent  literature  of  the 
nation.  For  instance  :  "  Among  the  gods,  there 
is  none  like  unto  Thee,  O  Jahveh  ;  neither  are 
there  any  works  like  unto  Thy  works."   Nor  could 

1  Joshua  xxiv.  2. 


Traces  of  Polytheism .  141 

a  poet  have  spoken  of  God  as  "  the  great  king 
above  all  gods,"  had  the  gods  of  the  heathen 
been  recognized  by  him  as  what  they  really 
were — "  mighty  shadows  thrown  by  the  mighty 
works  of  God,  and  intercepting  for  a  time  the 
pure  light  of  the  Godhead."  x 

Plainer  traces  of  polytheism  are  to  be  found 
in  the  teraphim  of  Laban  and  of  Rachel,  which 
are  enough  of  themselves  to  show  that  the  lofty 
spiritual  views  of  the  head  of  the  family  could 
not  always  be  communicated  to  other  and  espe- 
cially to  female  members  of  it. 

The  readiness  even  of  a  man  like  Abraham  to 
recognize  other  conceptions  of  the  Divine  than 
that  which  he  had  formed  for  himself,  comes 
out  clearly  in  the  story,  undoubtedly  extremely 
ancient,2  of  his  intercourse  with  Aielchisedec. 
At  the  time  the  Father  of  the  Faithful  wor- 
shipped El  Shaddai,  the  Omnipotent,  and  had 
not  yet  been  permitted  to  know  the  full  mean- 
ing of  the  name  Jahveh,  even  if  the  word  was 


1  Max  Miiller,  Chips,  i.,  p.  371.  We  must  not  lose  sight 
of  passages  like  "  All  the  gods  of  the  nations  are  idols," 
but  they  are  found  almost  exclusively  in  the  writings  of 
the  later  psalmists.      Cp.  Ewald,  ii.,  pp.  122,  123. 

2  Ewald,  i.,  p.  321. 


142  Religious  Influence: 

already  used  by  him.1  The  Canaanite  Priest- 
King,  retaining  the  simplicity  of  what  we  have 
reason  to  believe  was  the  earliest  faith,  but 
clothing  his  creed  in  different  language,  wor- 
shipped El  Eliun,3  the  highest  God,  possessor 
of  heaven  and  earth.  We  cannot  fail  to  be  re- 
minded here  of  the  passage  of  Sanchoniathon, 
which  tells  us  of  Eliun,  called  Hypsistus  (vxpiarog) 
of  whom  was  begotten  Epigeus,  whom  they 
afterwards  called  Ouranos,  and  who  had  a  sister 
by  the  same  parents,  called  Ge.  In  all  the  con- 
fusion of  this  genealogical  cosmogony,  we  seem 
to  trace  the  remembrance  of  an  old  Semitic  con- 
ception, vivid  and  true  in  the  days  of  Mel- 
chisedek,  but  obscured  by  the  bewildering  after- 
growth of  Phoenician  mythology.  At  any  rate 
Abraham  did  not  fail  to  acknowledge  the  unity 
that  lay  beneath  the  apparent  diversity,  and  in 
his  oath  by  "Jahveh,  the  most  high  God,  the 
possessor  [or  Creator]  of  heaven  and  earth,"  he 
identifies  the  two  conceptions.  Both  these  ten- 
dencies,— the  one  leading  to  the  recognition  of 

1  Cp.   Exod.  vi.  3.     The  Bishop  of  Natal  ("The  Pen- 
tateuch,"  part  v.,  chap,  xix.)    endeavours   to   prove   the 
Phoenician  origin  of  the  name  Jahveh  ;  I  think  with  little 
success.     Movers  decidedly  opposes  this  theory. 
Gen.  xiv.  18—22.     Cp.  De  Wette's  version. 


Israel  in  Egypt.  143 

gods  other  than  the  national  Jehovah,  and 
greatly,  immeasurably  inferior  to  Him,  and  the 
other  that  which  saw  under  various  names  the 
same  great  Deity  ;  the  latter  the  more  philo- 
sophically true,  the  former  perhaps  the  better 
preservative  against  temptations  from  without, 
— will  be  found  of  vast  importance  in  the  sub- 
sequent religious  history  of  Israel. 

The  sojourn  in  Egypt  was  undoubtedly  a 
crisis  of  as  much  importance  for  the  religious  as 
for  the  national  life  of  the  Hebrew  people.  On 
the  one  hand,  many  of  their  number  seem  to 
have  fallen  into  positive  idolatry.  "  Put  away 
the  gods,"  says  Joshua,1  "which  your  fathers 
served  on  the  other  side  of  the  flood  [i.e.  the 
river  Euphrates],  and  in  Egypt."  Ezekiel2  brings 
the  charge  as  plainly:  "Then  said  I  unto  them, 
cast  ye  away  every  man  the  abominations  of  his 
eyes,  and  defile  not  yourselves  with  the  idols  of 
Egypt  ;  I  Jahveh  am  your  God.  But  they  re- 
belled against  me,  and  would  not  hearken  unto 
me :  they  did  not  every  man  cast  away  the 
abominations  of  their  eyes,  neither  did  they 
forsake  the  idols  of  Egypt."  But  it  is  curious 
to  notice  that  in  the  specific  charges  brought 
xxiv.  14.  2  xx.  7,  8.  Cp.  also  xxiii.  3. 


144  Religious  Influence. 

against  the  people   by   Amos   (v.    26),  and  re- 
peated by  St.  Stephen  (Acts  vii.  43),  it  is  not 
distinctly  Egyptian  deities  that  they  are  said  to 
have  worshipped.     They  "  took    up    the    taber- 
nacle of   Moloch,    and    the    star    of    their   god 
Remphan  (or  according  to  Amos  Chiun1),  figures 
which  they  made  to  worship  them."     Now   to 
say  nothing  of  Moloch,  who  certainly  was  not 
Egyptian,   the  best  authorities  (e.g.    Mr.  R.    S. 
Poole,    in    the    Dictionary   of    the    Bible,  s.  v. 
Remphan)  teach  us  that   Remphan  and   Chiun 
[Renpu  and  Ken]  were  in  Egypt  foreign  deities, 
probably    Phoenician,    and    identical    with    Baal 
and  Astarte.     They  were  worshipped  in   Lower 
Egypt,  and  Mr.  Poole  thinks  that  the  presence 
of  a  large  foreign  population  there  points  to  the 
fact  that  the  shepherd-kings  were  still  in  power 
at  the  time  of  the  Exodus.     But  apart  from  the 
probability  that  the  Israelites  adopted  this  idola- 
trous worship  during  the  earlier  years  of  their 
sojourn  in   the  land,  there  is    little   ground  for 
supposing  that   all  .the  Canaanitish   population 
should   have   been    expelled   with   the    Hyksos 
dynasty.      It    is    much    more   probable   that   a 
large  body  remained  in  Egypt,  to  be  subjected 
But  see  LXX.  version  of  Amos. 


Tendency  to  Idolatry.  145 

to  the  same  oppression  as  the  children  of  Israel,1 
and  possibly  to  join  them  in  their  final  Exodus. 
On  the  other  hand,  if  we  find  already  proofs 
of  the  attraction  of  the  Phoenician  idolatry,  we 
know  also   that  this  was  the  time  of  the   con- 
solidation  of  that  pure  religion  that  was  des- 
tined to  struggle  against  it  for  so  many  centuries, 
and,  often. defeated  for  the  time,  to  win  the  vic- 
tory at  last  for  all  succeeding  ages,  "  saved  so  as 
by  tire."     Here  was  developed  first  the  idea  of 
the  Theocracy — "  one  among  many  kinds  of  rule 
and  polity ;  as  unstable  and  changeable  as  any 
other  ;  passing  through  the  most  varied  changes 
and  admixtures  in  Israel,  often  distorted  until 
all    likeness    was    lost,    and  weakened  so  as  to 
threaten  total  decay  ;  and  in   semblance   found 
among  other  nations  of  antiquity  ;  and  yet,  in 
its  actual  form,  unique  in  this  one  people,   and 
wholly  new  on  earth — the  sole  true  life  and  un- 
dying breath    of   its   history,    always    renewing 
itself  on   the    deepest   basis,    all    chances    and 
changes  notwithstanding,   and   in  the  course  of 
its  development  only  unfolding  itself  again  to  a 
fuller  and  riper  perfection,  till  at  length  it  attains 
to  the  only  true  and  adequate  realization  possible 

1  Exod.  xii.  38  :  Numbers  xi.  4;  cp.  Ewald,  ii.,  p.  82. 

10 


146  Religious  Influence. 

to  it,"1  in  the  spiritual  rule  of  the  King  that  rules 
in  righteousness,  mighty  to  save. 

The  religion  of  the  Egyptians  was  too  sen- 
suous, too  subtle,  and  too  formal  and  petty  in 
its  details  to  present  any  very  great  attractions 
to  the  simpler  and  less  artificial  Hebrews  ;  and 
it  was  soon  made  still  more  distasteful  to  them 
when  its  adherents  became  their  cruel  oppres- 
sors.    So,  led  by  the  genius  and  the  inspiration 
of  Moses,    they  embraced   with   eagerness    the 
great  conception  of  a  National  God,  Jahveh  the 
Deliverer,  before  whom  the  gods  of  the  heat'hen 
were    not   Elohim,    but  Elilim ;    not    gods,    but 
rather  no-gods.2     We  cannot  ascribe  to  Moses 
anything  like  a  complete  revelation  of  the  cha- 
racter of  the  Deity.    The  literature  of  the  nation 
as  late  as  some,  not  only  of  the  Davidic,  but  of 
the  later  Psalms,3  shows  us  how  imperfect  was 
the  knowledge  even  then    of  "the   Lord   God, 
merciful  and  gracious,    pardoning   iniquity  and 
transgression,"  and  requiring  His  people  to  fol- 
low  the  Divine    Example.     But   to    Moses   we 
may  fairly  assign,  in  the  words  of  Ewald,4  "  the 
'•'pure  healthy   germ  of  all  truth    respecting  a 

1  Ewald,  ii.,  p.  1.  s  Psalms  xxxv.,  Ixix.,  etc. 

2  Ewald,  ii.,  p.  123.  <  ii.,  p.  54. 


The  Teaching  of  Moses.  147 

spiritual  God,  and  the  first  powerful  inexhaust- 
ible impulse  given  by  the  establishment  of  the 
community  to  the  enduring  preservation  and 
fruitful  development  of  that  germ."  Novalis 
has  called  Spinoza  a  "  Gott  trunkner  Mann." 
The  epithet  is  dubious  in  this  application  of  it;  it 
would  have  been  more  just  if  applied  to  Spinoza's 
nation.  When  once  they  had  risen  to  the  con- 
ception of  a  Divine  Being,  who  had  taken  them 
to  Him  as  a  people,  and  was  unto  them  a  God  ; 
when  once  they  had  found  the  true  Deliverer,1 
for  whom  the  pagan  nations  were  blindly  feel- 
ing, if  haply  they  might  find  Him  (though  He 
was  not  far  from  any  one  of  them)  ;  when  they 
knew  Him  to  be  their  special  Healer  (Ex.  xv.  26) 
and  Guide  into  the  Land  of  Promise,2  they  won 
a  sense  of  His  living  presence,  and  continuous 
activity  amongst  them,  to  which  nothing  in  the 
ancient  world  is  comparable. 

This  intimate  relation  with  the  Unseen  and  the 
Divine  did  not  confine  itself  to  the  sphere  of  the 
spiritual.  A  Psalm  like  the  hundred  and  fourth, 
or  a  passage  like  Job  xxxvi. — xxxviii.,  is  enough 

1  Cp.  Ewald,  ii.,  p.  109^ 

2  Cp.  the  beautiful  erpocpocpoprjcrev  of  Acts  xiii.  iB.  (Lach- 
mann  and  Tischendorf.) 


148  Religions  Influence. 

to  show  how  in  every  operation  of  nature  they 
delighted  to  see  the  working  of  the  Holy  One 
of  Israel.     But  it  was  the  sense  of  the  possible 
communion    of  spirit  with  spirit,  a  communion 
utterly   foreign    to   the  pagan   mind,  that   gave 
its  strength  to  the  religion  of  Moses.     To  quote 
once  more  from  the  great  historian  whose  piety, 
profundity,    and  eloquence  make  us  regret  the 
more    deeply    his    arbitrary    dogmatism :    "  He 
whose  spirit  finds  its  true  place  in  the  Eternal 
Spirit,   in  that  act    receives    an    infinite   power, 
which  raises  him  above  the  world  and  time,  and 
suffers  him    to    find  rest  only  where  the  most 
blessed   contentment    dwells    in    union   with  an 
unfailing    zeal    to    participate    in    the    Divine 
energy.  .  .  .  With  the  fundamental  thought  of 
God  the  Deliverer,  there  arise  within  the  human 
soul    at    once   the   ability   and    the   courage  to 
recognize  all  the  truth  of  the  Divine  Spirit  who 
confronts  it,  and  to  open  itself  to  his   living  in- 
fluence.    And  this  is  a  life  which,  when  once  it 
has  struck  vigorous  root  among  men,  can  never 
perish,  but  advances  with  ever-multiplying  fruits. 
.  .  .  Here   then  we    perceive    in   its   germ  that 
which  made  the  history  of  the  ancient  people  of 
Israel  a  world- history ;  that  while  among  other 


Religious  Condition  of  Israel.         149 

nations  that  torpidity  of  soul,  paganism,  was 
assuming  more  and  more  rigid  forms,  until  it 
became  quite  incurable  by  the  few  scattered 
spirits  among  them  who  looked  deeper,  and 
attempted  bolder  things,  among  the  Israelites, 
even  in  a  relatively  very  early  time,  and  before 
the  heathenish  tendencies  in  them  could  be  fully 
unfolded,  that  freedom  and  boldness  of  spirit 
grew  up,  which,  after  once  beholding  the  purity 
and  power  of  the  Divine  light,  can  never  wholly 
weary  of  turning  towards  it  a  larger  and  fuller 
gaze." x  The  heathenish  tendencies  again  and 
again  broke  out  during  the  desert  wanderings  ; 
even  at  the  foot  of  Sinai,  the  timorous  people 
made  for  themselves  a  golden  calf,  possibly  as  a 
symbol  of  Jahveh's  presence,  but  possibly  also 
in  honour  of  the  " heifer-Baal"2  that  they  had 
learnt  to  worship  in  Lower  Egypt; — the  licentious 
dances  which  accompanied  the  worship  confirm 
this  latter  view.  The  lonely  desert  life  kept 
them  free  from  the  temptations  of  foreign  idola- 
try, and  the  only  instance  of  any  attempt  to  for- 
sake the  service  of  Jahveh  was  when  one  of  the 

1  Ewald,  ii.,  p.  112. 

2  Tobit,  i.,  5,  cp.  Diet.  Bible,  iii.,  1028^.  But  see  on  the 
other  hand  Ewald,  ii.,  p.  183  ;  his  treatment  of  the  whole 
incident  seems  to  be  in  his  most  arbitrary  style. 


150  Religious  Influence* 

"  mixed  multitude  "  blasphemed  the  Name.  The 
punishment  appointed  by  the  law  followed  at 
once,  the  offender  was  stoned,  and  we  hear  no 
more  of  any  unfaithfulness.  We  do  not  wonder 
to  find  the  prophet  Hosea  long  years  afterwards 
speaking  of  the  desert  as  the  place  where  com- 
munion with  God  was  the  closest  (ii.  14 — 20)  : 
"  Behold,  I  will  guide  her  tenderly,  and  bring  her 
into  the  wilderness,  and  speak  unto  her  heart  ; x 
and  from  thence  I  will  give  her  vineyards,  and 
the  valley  of  trouble  for  a  door  of  hope,  and  she 
shall  sing2  there  as  in  the  days  of  her  youth,  and 
as  in  the  day  when  she  came  up  out  of  the  land 
of  Egypt.  .  .  .  For  I  will  take  away  the  names 
of  Baalim  out  of  her  mouth,  and  they  shall  be 
no  more  remembered  by  their  name.  And  I 
will  betroth  thee  unto  me  for  ever.;  yea,  I  will 
betroth  thee  unto  me  in  righteousness,  and  in 
judgment,  and  in  lovingkindness,  and  in  mercies  : 
I  will  even  betroth  thee  unto  me  in  faithfulness  ; 
and  thou  shalt  know  the  Lord."  One  omen  of 
evil  alone  clouded  the  brightness  of  their  glad 
and  triumphant  entrance  into  the  Land  of 
Promise.     Balak,  the  king  of  Moab,  had  sum- 

Cp.  the  Hebrew. 
2  "  Intellege  autem  carmen  fletuset  precunv' — Gesenius. 


Baal-Peor.  1 5  1 

moned  Balaam  to  curse  the  goodly  tents  of 
Jacob ;  the  prophetic  utterances  had  only  taken 
the  form  of  blessing,  but  the  treacherous  coun- 
sels of  the  seer  were  far  more  fatal  than  any 
imprecation.  It  was  not  improbably  at  his  sug- 
gestion that  the  Midianites  "  called  the  people 
unto  the  sacrifices  of  their  gods  ;  and  the  people 
did  eat,  and  bowed  down  to  their  gods  ;  and 
Israel  joined  himself  to  Baal-Peor ;  and  the 
anger  of  the  Lord  was  kindled  against  Israel." 
The  character  of  the  worship  is  plainly  shown 
by  the  derivation  of  the  name  of  the  god,  his 
identification  by  Jerome  with  Priapus,1  and  the 
story  of  Zimri  and  Cozbi.  But  we  must  not  fail 
to  notice  that  if  there  were  some  of  the  children 
of  Israel  ready  to  fall  before  shameful  tempta- 
tion, the  worship  was  by  no  means  general,  and 
was  suppressed  with  terrible  severity  by  the  in- 
dignation of  Moses,  supported  by  the  elders  and 
the  majority  of  the  community.  We  must  con- 
sider this  episode  as  a  proof  rather  of  the  weak- 
ness of  a  portion  of  the  nation,  than  of  a  wide- 
spread corruption  and  apostasy.  On  the  whole, 
it  was  a  nation  of  loyal  and  faithful  worshippers 
of  Jahveh,  strong  with  a  vivid  consciousness  of 

1  Cp.  Hosea  ix.  10. 


152  Religious  Influence. 

His  favour  and  His  power  to  bless,  that  crossed 
the  Jordan  under  the  command  of  Joshua. 

We  have  now  to  endeavour  to  gain  a  clear 
conception  of  the  religion  of  the  tribes  with 
whom  the  struggle  had  to  be  waged,  and  of  the 
wealthy  and  powerful  maritime  cities  with  which 
the  invaders  would  be  brought  into  close  and 
constant  intercourse. 

Here  we  have  still  less  difficulty  than  we  had 
before  in  deciding  upon  the  substantial  identity 
of  Phoenicians  and  Canaanites.  Even  those 
scholars  who  contend  for  an  original  distinction 
of  race,  would  not  deny  that  at  the  time  of  the 
invasion  of  the  children  of  Israel  the  deities 
worshipped  on  the  coast  and  in  the  inland  cities 
were  substantially  the  same.  Substantially,  and 
not  exactly  ;  for  there  are  several  lesser  divi- 
nities of  the  Sidonians  which  do  not  appear  to 
have  been  known  or  worshipped  by  the  Canaan- 
ites. But  the  basis  of  their  religious  beliefs, 
and  no  small  part  of  the  superstructure,  were 
precisely  identical. 

Phoenician  polytheism — we  might  almost  say 
all  polytheism — had  its  origin  in  nature-worship. 
By  this  I  do  not  mean  fetish-worship,  which  the 
Positive  philosophy,  with  its  usual  arbitrary  dog- 


Phoenician  Religion.  153 

matism,  asserts  to  have  been  the  earliest  stage 
in  all  human  development.  Of  such  a  stage  we 
do  not  find  a  trace.  Much  rather,  one  section 
of  the  early  Semites,  probably  that  which  we 
have  already  referred  to  as  having  been  the  first 
to  leave  the  original  home  in  the  mountains  of 
Kurdistan,  went  through  an  experience  analogous 
to  that  of  some  divisions  of  the  Aryan  stock. 
For  these,  at  least,  M.  Renan's  words  are  of 
dubious  accuracy:  "Ayant  detache  beaucoup 
plus  tot  sa  personnalite  de  l'univers,  elle  en 
conclut  presque  immediatement  le  troisieme 
terme,  Dieu  createur  de  l'univers  ;  au  lieu  d'une 
nature  animee  et  vivante  dans  toutes  ses  parties, 
elle  concut,  si  j'ose  le  dire,  une  nature  seche  et 
sans  fecondite."1  On  the  contrary,  the  Canaanite 
peoples,  looking  out  into  the  world  around  them, 

1  Histoire,  etc.,  p.  497.  His  words  form  a  striking  con- 
trast with  those  of  M.  Lenormant.  "  The  divine  being, 
the  primordial  Baal,  was  almost  identified  with  the 
material  world.  He  was  superlatively  a  nature-god,  ope- 
rating in  the  universe,  and  in  physical  life,  each  year  de- 
stroying his  work,  to  renew  it  afresh  with  the  change  of 
seasons  ;  and  these  successive  operations  of  destruction 
and  renewal,  in  consequence  of  the  pantheistic  conception 
of  his  essence,  he  was  regarded  as  producing,  not  in  a 
world  created  by  him,  but  in  his  own  proper  person,  by  a 
reaction  on  himself."     (ii.  220.) 


154  Religious  Influence.  . 

musing  on  the  ceaseless  marvel  of  birth  and  life 
and  death,  and  deeply  influenced,  we  may  well 
believe,  by  the  Cushite  empire  of  Chaldsea,1  near 
which    their     earliest     settlements     had     been, 
thought  that  they  saw  at  work  beneath  the  phe- 
nomena of  nature  two  great'  principles,  one  'the 
creative,  the  other  the  receptive.     To  these  cor- 
responded the   phenomena  of  the   earliest  and 
deepest  mystery  of  human   life,  summed  up  in 
the  words,    "  So  God   created  man  ;  male  and 
female   created   He    them."     So   each  of  these 
principles  was  embodied  in  a  personal  concep- 
tion ;  the  life-giving  force  of  nature  was   wor- 
shipped under  the  name  of  Baal,  "the  Lord;"2 
Chemosh,   "  the  governor;"   Hadad,   "the  only 
one  ;"  Moloch,  "  the  king  ;"  or  sometimes  simply 
El,  "the  God."     The  purely  receptive   faculty 
was  adored  as  Ashtoreth,  as  Baalith,  or  as  Atar- 
gath.     But  these  conceptions  did  not  remain  as 
purely   ideal.      Movers    has   well    defined    the 
Phoenician  religion  as    "  an    apotheosis    of   the 
forces  and   laws  of  nature  ;  an  adoration  of  the 
objects  in  which  those  forces  were  seen,  and  where 

i  Especially  with  regard  to  the  astral  character  of  their 
religion.     Cp.  Movers,  i.,  p.  80,  and  see  below. 

2  Perhaps  more  properly  "owner,"  cp.  Movers,  i.,  p.  171. 
See  Lenormant,  ii.,  p.  219. 


Various  Conceptions  of  the  Deity.     155 

they  appeared  most  active?  Hence  it  came  about 
that  Baal  was  not  only  the  vivifying  principle, 
but  also  the  lord  of  its  concrete  embodiment, 
the  life-giving  sun  :  he  was  the  god  of  fire,  "  sic 
enim  se  res  habet,"  as  Cicero  (de  Nat.  Deor.  II. 
$  23)  puts  it,  "  ut  omnia  quae  aluntur  atque  cres- 
cunt,  contineant  in  se  vim  caloris,  sine  qua  neque 
ali  possent  nee  crescere."  But  as  the  sun  calls 
into  being  things  evil  as  well  as  good,  and  out  of 
death  brings  forth  corruption,  so  he  was  Baal- 
zebub,  "  the  god  of  flies,"  who  was  able  to  bring 
this  plague  upon  those  who  neglected  his  wor- 
ship. Further,  as  being  the  highest  of  all  the 
heavenly  ones,  he  was  identified  with  the  planet 
Saturn,  according  to  the  ancient  conceptions 1 
the  most  distant  and  exalted  of  the  Cabirim, 
"  the  powerful  ones."  But  under  all  these  mani- 
festations, he  was  (originally  at  least)  one  and 
the  same  god,2  viewed  in  different  aspects,  but 
always  regarded  for  the  time  as  the  supreme, 
and  hence  identified  by  the  Greeks  with  Zeus. 
Side  by  side  with  this  tendency  to  distinguish 
the  several  functions  of  Baal,  by  the  creation  of 
individual   hypostases   each   setting  forth   some 

1  See  Tac.  Hist.,  v.,  4,  quoted  below. 

2  Movers,  i.,  p.  172^ 


156  Religious  Influence. 

leading  characteristic,  there  was  a  force  at  work 
also  multiplying  the  names  of  the  supreme 
deity,  and  hence,  in  the  long  run,  multiplying 
deities.  Mention  has  been  made  above  of  the 
political  disorganization  of  the  Phoenician 
people.  Except  when  held  in  forcible  subjection 
by  the  suzerainty  of  Sidon,  and  afterwards 
Tyre,  they  appear  in  history  as  isolated  cities, 
kept  from  any  firm  and  lasting  union  by  mutual 
jealousies.  An  immediate  result  of  this  was 
that  every  state  gave  a  local  name  of  its  own  to 
the  common  deity.  We  find  Baal-Tsur,  Baal- 
Sidon,  Baal-Tars,  Baal-Peor,  Baal-Hermon,  and 
Baal-Pisgah.1  The  first  of  these,  "  the  lord  of 
Tyre,"  was  generally  known  as  Melkarth 2  (i.e., 
Melek  Kiryath)  "  King  of  the  city,"  and  so  his 
identity  with  Baal  was  further  concealed.  "  In 
this  way,"  says  the  Count  de  Vogue,3  "  Baal  could 
receive  a  particular  name,  thus  completing  the 
disguise  of  his  primitive  character  in  the  popular 

1  Movers,  i.,  p.  175. 

2  Cp.  Karthada — the  Latin  Carthago.  The  Tyrian  Baal 
is  commonly  identified  with  Herakles  (Herod,  ii.,  44),  but 
this  may  have  arisen    only  from  misunderstanding   his 

epithet  73*1(1?    harachal,    "  he  who   goes    about  ; "    cp. 

T     T     T 

Colenso,  "  Pentateuch,"  part  v.,  p.  280,  note. 

3  Quoted  by  Lenormant,  ii.,  p.  219. 


Ashtoreth.  157 

mind,  but  still  not  entirely  excluding  a  confused 
idea  of  the  original  unity  of  the  deity." 

Now  side  by  side  with  all  these  varying  con- 
ceptions of  Baal  were  parallel  "  manifestations  " 
(to  use  the  technical  term  of  the  Phoenician  in- 
scriptions) of  his  consort  Ashtoreth.  Where  he 
is  the  sun-god,  she  is  the  goddess  of  the  moon  ;  x 
where  he  is  Priapus,  she  is  Venus  ;  where  he  is 
the  supreme  god,  Zeus,  she  is  his  royal  partner 
Hera.2  And  what  is  most  remarkable  is  that 
each  came  to  be  considered  as  containing  all 
that  was  needful  to  reproduction,  "  all  that  in 
terrestrial  generation  constitute  both  the  active 
and    the    passive    principles,    the  male  and   the 

1  This  may  have  arisen  from  the  conception  of  Ash- 
toreth as  the  receptive  faculty  ;  cp.  Verg.,  Georg.  L,  396, 
"nee  (videtur)  fratris  radiis  obnoxia  surgere  Luna/' with 
Heyne's  Excursus,  and  De  Nat.  Deor.,  ii.,  c.  40.  But  by 
comparing  De  Div.,  ii.,  46,  §  97  :  "  ex  quo  intellegitur  plus 
terrarum  situs  quam  lunae  tactus  ad  nascendum  valere," 
we  find  perhaps  a  trace  of  a  belief  of  the  direct  influence 
of  the  moon  upon  generation.  See  too  Servius  on  Verg., 
JEn.,  hi.,  141  :  "  sterilitatem  liberorum  tarn  Saturno  quam 
Lunae  tribuunt  ;  hanc  enim  sicut  Saturnum  orbandi 
potestatem  habere."  The  name  Ashtoreth  seems  to  denote 
'  productiveness.'  The  plural  form  is  found  in  Deut.  vii.  13, 
where  the  A.V.  has  flocks  of  thy  sheep,  but  Gesenius  ren- 
ders '  femellae  gregem  propagantes.'  Cp.  the  Speaker's 
Commentary  in  /.  c.  De    Wette  has  'das  Lammen.' 

2  See  quotations  in  Kenrick,  p.  301. 


158  Religions  Influence. 

female."  x  Hence  we  get  the  strange  androgy- 
nus  Venus  of  Amathus,2  and  the  hermaphrodite 
Adonis,3  each  considered  as  taking  up  into  itself 
all  that  was  needed  for  complete  and  independent 
being  and  reproduction,  without  however  losing 
its  individual  character. 

From  these  multiform  representations  of  the 
two  chief  deities,  they  come  to  be  spoken  of 
often  in  the  plural,  and  instead  of  Baal  and 
Ashtoreth,  we  have  Baalim  and  Ashtaroth. 
Gesenius  held  indeed  that  the  plural  here  was 
used  to  denote  statues  of  Baal  and  Ashtoreth  ; 
but  Movers4  has  brought  abundant  reasons  for 
accepting  the  view  just  stated.     It  is  confirmed 

1  Lenormant.  ii.,  p.  222.  We  may  compare  the  curious 
rationalizing  explanation  of  the  myth  of  the  mutilation  of 
Uranus,  given  by  Cicero  de  Nat.  Deor.,  ii.,  §  64):  "phy- 
sica  ratio  non  inelegans  inclusa  est  in  impias  fabulas  : 
caelestem  enim  altissimam  aetheriamque  naturam,  id  est 
igneam,  quae  per  se  omnia  gigneret,  vacare  voluerunt  ea 
parte  corporis,  quae  coniunctione  alterius  egeret  ad  procre- 
andum." 

2  "  Philochorus  Venerem  affirmat  esse  Lunam  et  ei 
sacrificium  facere  viros  cum  veste  muliebri,  mulieres  cum 
virili,  quod  eadem  et  mas  existimatur  et  femina." — Macro- 
bius,  quoted  by  Kenrick,  p.  305,  note  3.  Hence  the  pro- 
hibition in  Deut.  xxii.  5. 

3  Cp.  Movers,  i.,  pp.  149,  233 

4  L,  pp.  175,  602. 


Baal  under  differe7it  Forms.         159 

by  the  fact  that  the  singular  is  not  found  in  the 
Sacred  Narrative,  until  the  time  of  Solomon, 
when  it  is  used  to  denote  the  particular  goddess. 
Ashtoreth  of  the  Sidonians,  to  whom  he  built  a 
temple. 

It  is  by  no  means   necessary  for  our  present 
purpose  to  plunge  into  all  the  difficulties  of  the 
Phoenician  cosmogony,  as   preserved  to    us    by 
Sanchoniathon,1  or  even  into  the  abstruser  parts 
of  their  mythology.     To  estimate  the  influence  of 
their  religion  upon  the  Jews,  it  will  be  sufficient 
to  notice  such  broad  features  of  it  as  were  likely 
to  have  come  under  their  notice.     And  this  we 
may  do  the  more  safely,  because  the  influence 
seems  to  have  been  wholly  of  a  popular  kind. 
Movers  has  collected  evidence  of  the  high  esteem 
in  which  the  wisdom  of  the  Phoenicians  was  held 
by  the  ancients:  TroWcigtcai  Qoivikzq  oSovq  /uaKciphJv 
i§ail<rav?     But  it  was  their  ritual,  and  not  their 
theosophy,  the  attractions  of  their  sensual  wor- 
ship, and  not  the  charms  of  their  mystic  specula- 
tions, that  drew  the   people  of  Jahveh  into  the 
service  of  Baalim  and  Ashtaroth. 

1  The  value  of  his  authority  is  very  well  discussed  by 
Movers,  i.,pp.  116— 147;  by  Kenrick,  pp.  281 — 291;  and 
Renan  in  the  "  Memoires  de  lTnstitut"  for  i860. 

2  i.»  PP-  5—7- 


160  Religious  Influence.. 

We  have  then  the  great  Nature-power,  the 
sun-god,  viewed  in  three  ways.  I,  as  Baal- 
Samim,  or  Adonis,  the  fresh  young  sun  of  spring, 
full  of  creative  force,  calling  all  vegetable  life 
into  luxuriant  fertility,  and  kindling  in  the 
animal  world  the  fire  of  youthful  passion ; x 
2,  as  the  fierce  sun  of  summer,  like  Tantalus2 
burning  up  the  fruits  and  flowers  that  owed  their 
life  to  him, — Baal-Mars,  or  Moloch,  the  terrible 
god  of  fire  ;  and,  3,  as  the  principle  of  order, 
unity,  and  steadfastness  in  the  universe,  the 
power  which  held  the  world  together  when  the 
beautiful  Adonis  had  been  slain  by  the  fury  of 
Moloch,   which  albeit  in    gloom    and    darkness, 

1  Compare  the  well-known  lines  of  "Locksley  Hall" — 

In  the  spring  a  fuller  crimson  comes  upon  the  robin's  breast  : 

In  the  spring  the  wanton  lapwing  gets  himself  another  crest  ; 

In  the  spring  a  livelier  iris  changes  on  the  burnished  dove  ; 

In  the  spring  a  young  man's  fancy  lightly  turns  to  thoughts  of  love  ; 

and  the  lovely  verses    of  Lucretius,  to    which   they  are 
possibly  due  : 

Nam  simul  ac  species  patefactast  verna  diei 
Et  reserata  viget  genitabilis  aura  favoni, 
Aeriae  primum  volucres  te,  diva,  tuumque 
Significant  initum  perculsae  corda  tua  vi   .  .   . 
Omnibus  incutiens  blandum  per  pectora  amorem 
Efficis  ut  cupide  generatim  saecla  propagent. 

So  Chaucer,  Canterbury  Tales,  ad  init.     But  quotations 
might  be  multiplied  without  number. 

2  Cox,  Aryan  Mythology,  i.,  p.  363,  etc. 


Symbolism.  1 6 1 

husbanded  and  gathered  the  exhausted  powers 
of  nature  for  new  creative  exertions,  when  the 
world  should  be  gladdened  again  by  the  birth  of 
the  life-giving  Sun  of  Spring  ;  this  was  Baal- 
Chewan,  identified  with  Saturn.1 

As  the  life-giving  deities,  Baal  and  Ashtoreth 
were  adored  under  symbols  which  appear  to  us 
revolting,  but  to  which  at  first  no  ideas  of  in- 
decency were  probably  attached.  Among  the 
Canaanites,  as  well  as  in  the  Greek  and  Indian 
branches  of  the  Aryan  race,2  Linga-worship, 
"  nicht  aus  der  moralischen  Verdorbenheit  der 
Volker  .  .  .  sondern  aus  ihrer  noch  kindlich 
naiven  Denkweise  erklart  werden  muss,  wo  man 
unbekummert  um  die  Decenz  des  Ausdrucks 
oder  des  Bildes  stets  dasjenige  wahlte,  welches 
eine  Idee  am  passendsten  bezeichnete.  Welches 
Glied  kannte  aber  bezeichnender  an  den  Schop- 
fer  mahnen  als  eben  das  schaffende  Or^an."8 
This  was  undoubtedly  the  meaning  of  the 
Asherah,   a  word  translated   in  the  authorized 

1  Cp.  Movers,  pp.  184 — 189,  and  his  subsequent  expo- 
sitions in  greater  detail,  cc.  7 — 10. 

2  I  limit  the  expression,  because  I  cannot  accept  the 
evidence  which  satisfies  Mr.  Cox  that  such  a  cultus  was 
universal,     (ii.,  p.  128.) 

3  Nork,  quoted  by  Cox,  "Aryan  Mythology,"  ii.,  p.  113. 

II 


1 62  Religions  Influence. 

version  "grove,"  but  denoting  properly  a  sym- 
bolical pole  or  stem  of  a  tree.     Movers  indeed 
maintains  that  Asherah  is  a  goddess  distinct  from 
Ashtoreth,  but  it  seems  from  the  usage  of  the 
word  far  more  probable  that  the  word  denotes 
merely  the  upright  wooden   symbol,  employed 
in  the  worship  of  Ashtoreth,  sometimes  of  com- 
paratively small  size  and  movable,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  Asherah  which  Josiah  found  standing  on 
the  altar  of  Baal-Peor,  in  the  temple  of  the  Lord, 
and    brought   out    to    be   destroyed,    when    he 
banished    the   worship    of  Baal  and    Ashtoreth 
from    Jerusalem,1  sometimes  fixed    in    numbers 
round  the  altars  of  Baal,  as  in  the  "  grove  "  which 
Gideon  cut  down  in  the  night  at  Ophrah.2     It  is 
needless  to   say  a  word   about  the  character  of 
the  worship  that  would  be  offered,  or  the  nature 
of  the  sacrifices   that  would   be   deemed    most 
acceptable.     We  may  be  willing  to  believe  that 
the  worship  was  instituted  at  first  in  purity,  and 

i  2  Kings  xxiii.  6.     Cp.  xxiii.  7,  and  xxi.  7. 

2  Judges  vi.  (a.v.)  But  even  here  the  true  translation 
is  rather  "  on  the  altar."  De  Wette  has  "  die  Astarte  auf 
demselben  haue  urn."  The  symbol  was  large  enough  in 
this  case  to  be  used  as  wood  for  burning  an  ox  in  sacrifice. 
In  Deut.  xvi.  21,  the  correct  version  is,  "  Thou  shalt  not 
plant  thee  any  tree  as  an  Asherah  near  unto  the  altar  of 
Jahveh  thy  God." 


The  AsheraJi.  163 

even  that  it  owed  its  degradation  in  part  to  the 
influence  of  the  Babylonian  cult  of  Mylitta,1 
though  it  is  impossible  to  suppose  that,  with  the 
development  of  consciousness  among  the  people, 
it  should  not  have  become  consciously  corrupt. 
But  we  can  only  marvel  at  Mr.  Kenrick's  start- 
ling assertion  that  this  worship  is  reprobated  in 
Scripture  "  rather  for  its  cruelty  than  its  licen- 
tiousness." Ashtoreth  is  hardly  ever  mentioned 
in  Scripture,  except  as  "  the  abomination  of  the 
Sidonians,"  and  the  strongest  language  is  used 
of  the  corruptions  that  attended  her  worship.2 

If  the  worship  of  the  life-giving  sun-god 
became  through  its  symbolism  grossly  immoral, 
the  worship  of  the  life-destroying  sun  was  in  its 
essential  nature  cruel. 

Movers  has  shown3  that  the  character  ascribed 
to  this  god  probably  arose  from  an  amalgama- 
tion of  the  features  of  Baal  with  those  of  the 
deity  worshipped  as  the  fire-god  in  the  earliest 

1  Kenrick,  p.  307. 

2  If  further  proof  of  the  horribly  debasing  character  of 
this  worship  were  needed,  it  would  be  supplied  abundantly 
by  the  fact  that  those  who  were  called  kadesh,  and  in  the 
fern,  kadeshah,  were  devoted  (fr.  kadash,  '  holy,'  cp.  sacer) 
to  her  service.      See  Henderson  on  Hosea  iv.  14. 

3  i-,  P-  Vbff- 


1 64'  Religious  Influence. 

times.  Among  the  Moabites  he  was  known  as 
Chemosh1  or  Ariel,  and  his  figure,  holding  in  his 
hand  fiery  torches,  is  still  preserved  to  us  on 
coins  of  Rabbat  Moab.2  It  is  probable  that  the 
worship  of  Moloch  presented  itself  under  two 
different  forms  to  the  children  of  Israel :  the  one 
a  milder  form  of  fire-worship,  not  accompanied 
with  human  sacrifices,  and  possibly  regarded 
only  as  a  personification  of  Jahveh,  "the  de- 
vouring fire  ;"  the  latter  the  terrible  cultus  in 
which  children  were  "  passed  through  the  fire" 
to  Moloch,  i.e.  probably  actually  burnt  in  sacri- 
fice to  him.  It  was  the  former  which  Solomon 
set  up  on  a  mountain  near  Jerusalem  ;3  to  the 
latter  Ahaz  subsequently  dedicated  the  Valley 
of  Tophet  or  Hinnom.  This  is  the  view  sup- 
ported by  Movers  and  Ewald  ;  the  main  objec- 
tion to  it  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  requires  us  to 
suppose  that  the  verse  1  Kings  xi.  7  is  by  a 
different  hand  from  the  fifth  verse  of  the  same 
chapter.     This  of  course  presents  no  difficulty  to 

1  Fiirst  derives  this  name  from  \£}J2i2i  " t0  burn,"  or 
"  glow." 

2  In  the  recently-discovered  Moabite  inscription  we 
find  the  name  Ashtar-  Chemosh,  where  the  first  element 
is  the  masculine  form  of  Ashtoreth. 

3  1  Kings  xi.  5  ;  2  Kings  xxiii.  13. 


Moloch  Worship.  165 

the  German  critics,  who  resolve  not  only  the 
books  but  even  the  chapters  of  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures  into  what  they  assume  to  be  their 
original  component  parts,  with  such  confident 
dogmatism  ;x  but  it  causes  some  hesitation  to 
English  scholars.  At  any  rate  there  is  abundant 
evidence  to  show  that  at  a  very  early  period 
Moloch  the  flame-god,  a  modification  or  hypos- 
tasis of  Baal  the  sun-god,  was  worshipped  with 
rites  of  terrible  cruelty.  "  They  sacrificed  their 
sons  and  their  daughters  unto  devils,  and  shed 
innocent  blood,  the  blood  of  their  sons  and 
their  daughters,  whom  they  sacrificed  unto  the 
idols  of  Canaan."2  It  was  this  form  of  Baal- 
worship  that  was  common  in  Tyre,  where 
''the  Lord  Melkarth,  Baal  of  Tyre,"3  was  sym- 
bolized by  an  ever-burning  fire.  We  know  how 
commonly  the  Carthaginians  in  any  time  of 
national  distress  had  recourse  to  human  sacri- 
fices, and  indeed  they  appear  to  have  made  them 

1  Ewald;s  Isaiah  seems  to  me  a  striking  instance  of 
this  ;  and  Mr.  Cheyne's  interesting  version  goes  a  long 
way  in  the  same  direction. 

2  Psalm  cvi.  37,  38;  cp.  Jer.  xix.  4,  5. 

3  From  an  inscription  found  in  Malta.  Cicero  (de  Nat. 
Deor.,  ii.,  16)  makes  the  Tyrian  Hercules  a  son  of  Jupiter 
and  Asteria,  i.e.,  Baal  and  Ashtoreth.  Cp.  Movers,  i.,  pp. 
400—409. 


1 66  Religious  Influence. 

part  of  their  regular  worship.  Although  we 
find  that  Moloch  is  spoken  of  as  especially  "  the 
abomination  of  the  children  of  Amnion,"  still  it 
is  possible  that  the  introduction  of  his  worship 
was  partly  at  least  due  to  Tyrian  influence, 
and  that  it  was  maintained  at  Jerusalem  by  the 
body  of  Tyrian  settlers  to  whom  we  have  re- 
ferred before.  This  would  help  to  explain  the 
fact  that,  unless  Moloch  is  to  be  included  among 
the  Baalim  of  the  Book  of  Judges  (which  seems 
very  doubtful),  the  first  introduction  of  his  wor- 
ship was  not  till  after  the  full  development  of 
the  Tyrian  hegemony  in  Phoenicia. 

The  cultus  of  Baal-Saturn  is  much  less  easy 
to  trace,  but  this  arises  probably  from  the  great 
modification  which  it  underwent  among  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel.  To  a  nation  in  the  first  enthu- 
siasm of  a  great  national  deliverance  the  purely 
sensual  worship  of  Baal-Adonis  would  have  fur- 
nished but  slight  and  temporary  attractions. 
"  Certain  lewd  fellows  of  the  baser  sort"  might 
be  carried  away  for  the  time  by  the  temptations 
of  the  devotees  of  Baal-Peor,  but  the  bulk  of  the 
nation  would  know  that  such  a  worship  could 
find  no  place  with  those  who  were  under  the 
care  of  the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  their  Deliverer. 


Worship  of  Baal- Sat  urn.  167 

If,  as  is  very  possible,  some  knowledge  of  the 
cultus,  and  even  some  tendency  to  share  in  it, 
had  accompanied  them  into  Egypt,  after  their 
sojourn  in  the  midst  of  the  Canaanites,  the 
hardships  of  their  captivity  there  would  have 
driven  from  their  minds  all  inclination  to  a  reli- 
gion based  upon  a  sense  of  the  rich  exuberance 
of  nature.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  we  may  well 
believe  that  the  craven  fear  of  the  destructive 
Chthonian  powers  that  furnished  the  baser 
motives,  and  the  sense  of  sin  and  the  need  of 
purification  which  gave  a  nobler  impulse,  to  the 
worship  of  Moloch,  would  have  been  expelled 
or  satisfied  by  their  trust  in  Jahveh  and  their 
obedience  to  the  sacrificial  law  of  Moses.  The 
worship  of  Baal- Saturn  was  of  a  very  much 
nobler  type.  Movers  has  collected  much  evi- 
dence to  show  that  he  was  identical  with  El,  the 
original  deity  of  the  Semitic  nations.1  He  is 
regarded  as  the  father  of  all  the  Elohim,  the 
creator  of  the  world,  its  continual  upholder  and 
ruler.2  Seated  above  all  the  planets,  and  lord 
of  the  heavenly  host,  he  maintains  the  unity 
and  order  of  the  Cosmos  ;    he   binds  it  in  the. 

1  See  also  Ewald,  i.,  p.  361. 

2  Cp.  Movers,  L,  c.  viii.,  and  especially  p.  286. 


OF  THE 

liTY 


1 68  Religious  Influence. 

eternal  bands  of  law.  The  king  of  Assyria 
reaches  the  summit  of  his  audacity,  when  he 
says,  "I  will  ascend  into  heaven,  I  will  exalt 
my  throne  above  the  stars  of  El,  I  will  make 
myself  like  to  El-Eliun."  An  all  but  universal 
opinion  among  the  ancient  pagans,  originating 
probably  in  Egypt,  was  that  Saturn  was  the  God 
of  the  Jews;1  and  if  this  be  rightly  understood, 
there  may  be  some  truth  in  it.  For  all  the 
Semitic  nations,  we  believe,  held  at  first  a  pure 
and  simple  Monotheism,  which  held  its  ground 
finally  only  among  the  Jews.2 

From  this,  in  the  Phoenician  or  Canaanite 
tribes,  sprang  up  like  noxious  parasites  other 
cults,  which  overgrew  and  at  last  hid  away  from 
sight   entirely  the  primitive  faith.3     But  it  still 

1  Movers,  1.,  297.  Cp.  Tac.  Hist.,  v.  4.  "Alii  honorem 
eum  (of  the  Sabbath),  Saturno  haberi  seu  .  .  .  seu  quod 
de  septem  sideribus,  quis  mortales  res  reguntur,  altissimo 
orbe  et  pr&cipua  potentia  Stella  Saturni  feratur." 

2  The  Arabs,  whatever  M.  Renan  says,  were  certainly 
idolaters  at  the  time  of  Mahomet's  reformation. 

3  The  remarks  of  Movers  (i.,  p.  315)  are  worth  tran- 
scribing here  : — 

"  On  these  grounds  [traces  of  customs  among  the  He- 
brews similar  to  those  characteristic  of  the  worship   of 
El]  I  do  not  hesitate  to  bring  Mosaism  into  connection 
with  the  circle  of  religious  ideas  common  to  the  nations 
allied  to  the  Jews  by  speech  and  race,  and  to  regard  it  as 


Baa  I-  Sat u  rn.  169 

remained,  though  much  disfigured,  all  but  for- 
gotten, and  crumbling  fast  into  ruin  ;  and  the 
worship  of  Baal-Saturn  seems  to  have  been  its 
representative.  If  this  be  so,  we  can  begin  to 
understand  what  is  meant  by  the  words  already 
quoted  from  Amos  :  "  Ye  have  borne  the  taber- 
nacles of  your  king,  even  Chiun  [or  Remphan], 
your  images,  the  star  of  your  god."  It  admits  of 
little  doubt  that  Saturn  is  here  referred  to  ;  but 
it  seems  more  natural  to  suppose  that  we  have 
here  an  instance  of  the  violation  of  the  second 
commandment  rather  than  the  first ;  an  attempt 

a  higher  manifestation  of  the  Saturn  cultus  of  Hither 
Asia  ;  and  here  it  is  perhaps  hardly  needful  to  remark 
that  neither  from  the  point  of  view  of  religious  history 
nor  from  that  of  theology  can  I  consider  the  Mosaic 
religion  as  a  development  from  heathendom,  but  that  I 
hold  it,  with  the  Holy  Scriptures,  to  be  a  restitution  of  the 
purer  worship  of  an  earlier  time,  which  at  various  periods 
among  the  Israelites  and  their  forefathers  was  perhaps 
more  or  less  depressed,  first,  according  to  the  Biblical  ac- 
count, among  Abraham's  ancestors  in  Chaldasa,  probably 
by  the  prevalent  worship  of  Moloch,  or  fire,  then  to  a 
much  more  important  extent  during  the  sojourn  of  the 
Hebrews  in  Egypt,  in  the  midst  of  the  Canaanite  Hyksos, 
who  worshipped  Moloch  and  Chiun,  similarly  during  the 
time  of  the  Judges,  and  again  at  times  under  the  rule  of 
the  Kings,  especially  between  Manasseh  and  Josiah,  but 
never  to  such  an  extent  that  by  means  of  Divine  Providence 
a  restoration  of  the  old  idea  of  God  was  not  possible." 


1 70  Religious  Influence. 

to  have  some  visible  representation  of  their 
own  god,  rather  than  a  lapse  into  Sabaean  star- 
worship.  Hence  the  force  of  the  appellation  used 
by  the  prophet  :  "  Therefore  I  will  cause  you 
to  go  into  captivity  beyond  Damascus,  saith 
Jahveh,  whose  name  is  The  God  of  the  Hosts  of 
Heaven,"1  the  stars.  But  the  Israelitish  worship 
was  being  constantly  elevated  and  purified  during 
the  life  in  the  desert  by  the  lofty  inspiration  of 
Moses,  while  the  simpler  creed  of  their  fathers 
was  being  corrupted  among  the  Canaanites,  and 
continually  debased.  The  primary  conception 
of  a  holy  and  just  God,  in  whose  eyes  every  sin 
would  call  for  expiation,  easily  passed  into  that 
of  a  jealous  king,  taking  pleasure  in  human 
suffering.  And  so  we  find  that  Saturn  came  to 
be  honoured  with  the  same  cruel  sacrifices  as 
Moloch.2  "  The  Phoenician  history  of  Sancho- 
niatho,"  says  Porphyry,  "  is  full  of  instances  in 
which  that  people,  when  suffering  under  great 
calamity  from  war,  or  drought,  or  pestilence, 
chose  by  public  vote  one  of  those  most  dear  to 


1  This  is  not,  however,  Mr.  Grove's  view.     See  Diet. 
Bible,  in  voc.  Sabaoth. 

2  For  this  "Verschmelzung"  of  Saturn  and  Moloch,  cp. 
Movers,  i.,  p.  317. 


Astral  Worship.  171 

them,  and  sacrificed  him  to  Saturn."  And  Movers1 
has  shown  that  the  same  custom  was  widely 
extended  among  the  Phoenician  colonies.  The 
practice  continued  even  as  late  as  the  time  of 
Tiberius,  who  put  a  stop  to  it  by  hanging  the 
priests  on  the  trees  of  their  own  sacred  groves. 

It  is  not  by  any  means  easy  to  determine  the 
exact  form  which  the  worship  of  the  heavenly 
bodies  took  in  the  various  nations  of  Western 
Asia.  Movers  has  investigated  the  question  with 
his  usual  learning  and  laborious  patience,  and  the 
conclusions  to  which  he  comes  are  the  following. 
The  purest  form  of  star-worship  was  that  of  the 
Assyrio-Persian  Magism  ;  it  admitted  of  no 
images  of  the  Deity,  and  in  its  adoration  of  the 
heavenly  bodies  it  drew  its  deepest  inspiration 
from  the  thought  of  their  perfect  beauty.  This 
was  the  cultus  to  which  Job  felt  himself  tempted 
when  he  "  beheld  the  sun  when  it  shined,  or  the 
moon  walking  in  brightness"  (cp.  Deut.  iv.  19). 
A  second  mode  of  regarding  the  stars  was  that 
of  the  Phoenicians,  by  whom  they  were  looked 
upon  as  the  originators  of  the  growth  and  decay 
of  nature,  the  embodiment  of  the  creative  and 
generative  principle;   and  from  this  view  theie 

1  i-,  PP-  299—305- 


172  Religious  Influence.  . 

was  readily  developed  a  further  symbolism, 
which  led  ere  long  to  the  grossest  idolatry.  The 
third  great  system  of  astral  worship  was  that 
whose  leading  tendency  was  to  dwell  rather  on 
the  contemplation  of  the  eternal  unchangeable- 
ness  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  as  contrasted  with 
the  chances  and  changes  of  this  transitory  life. 
This  was  the  form  most  common  among  the 
Chaldseans,  and  naturally  produced  the  astro- 
logy for  which  they  were  famous.1  It  is  not 
possible  always  to  determine  which  form  of  the 
worship  of  "  the  hosts  of  heaven '  was  that 
which  presented  itself  as  a  temptation  to  the 
children  of  Israel;  on  the  whole  we  may  assume 
it  to  have  been  the  second,  not  only  from  the 
connection  in  which  it  is  mentioned,  but  also 
from  the  circumstances  of  the  case.  But  this 
applies  only  to  the  earlier  periods.  At  the  time 
wrhen  the  Jews  were  brought  into  connection 
with  Babylon,  the  purer  character  of  the  Chal- 
daean  faith  had  been  corrupted,  possibly  by  the 
grosser  tendencies  of  the  Cushite  population  ; 
and  the  rites  of  the  Babylonian  worship  were  at 
least  as  degrading  as  those  of  the  Phoenician  ; 
and  Bilit  or  Mylitta,  at  all  events  in  that  lower 
1  Movers,  i.,  pp.  157 — 168. 


Idolatry  of  Israel.  173 

aspect  of  her  character  which  corresponded  to 
Aphrodite  Pandemos,  suffered  a  degeneracy  as 
oreat  as  we  find  in  Ashtoreth. 

Such  were  the  broad  features  of  the  Phoenician 
and  Canaanite  religion  that  presented  them- 
selves to  the  Israelites  when  they  entered  the 
Promised  Land.  No  long  time  elapsed  before 
they  felt  the  full  force  of  the  temptations  that 
were  thus  presented  to  them.  In  answer  to  the 
appeal  of  Joshua,  they  had  vowed  to  put  away 
from  them  the  gods  of  the  Amorites,  in  whose 
land  they  dwelt;1  "  and  the  people  served  the 
Lord  all  the  days  of  Joshua,  and  all  the  days 
of  the  elders  that  prolonged  their  days  after 
Joshua,  who  had  seen  all  the  great  works  of  the 
Lord  that  He  did  for  Israel."2  But  when  another 
generation  arose,  "  they  did  evil  in  the  sight  of 
the  Lord,  and  they  forsook  the  Lord,  and  served 
Baalim  and  Ashtaroth."  The  attractions  of  a 
higher  civilization  and  a  richer  luxury  than  any 
that  they  had  known  before,  the  constant  com- 
mercial intercourse  upon  which  we  have  dwelt, 
and,  above  all,  marriage  alliances  with  the  people 
of  the  land,  would  draw  them  with  an  all  but 

1  Joshua,  xxiv. 

2  Judges  ii.  7. 


174  Religious  Influence. 

irresistible  force  to  the  shrines  of  Baal.     They 

found 

How  hard  to  hurry  by 
Where,  on  the  lonely  woodland  road, 

Beneath  the  moonlight  sky, 

The  festal  warblings  flowed  ; 
Where  maidens  to  the  queen  of  heaven 
Wove  the  gay  dance  round  oak  or  palm, 

Or  breathed  their  vows  at  even 

In  hymns  as  soft  as  balm. 

But  in  addition  to  the  potent  sensual  attrac- 
tions of  the  worship  of  the  generative  powers, 
a  subtler  cause  was  probably  also  at  work, 
originating  in  the  identity  of  the  Hebrew  lan- 
guage with  that  of  their  tempters.  There  seems 
but  little  evidence  to  support  those  critics  who 
maintain  that  the  whole  Levitical  system  is  of 
late  introduction.1  But  there  is  much  more  force 
in  the  argument  of  Dean  Milman  (L,  p.  160,  note 
last  ed.)  that  it  was  rather  "  an  ideal  religious 
republic,  an  Utopia,  existing  in  the  mind  of  the 
wise  legislator,  but  never  realized  upon  earth. 
Is  it  not  another  illustration  of  the  perverseness 

1  A  popular  account  of  the  views  of  this  school  is 
given  by  Sharpe,  "  History  of  the  Hebrew  Nation  and 
Literature,"  especially  pp.  ioo — 105,  and  194^  But  see 
Milman's  excellent  discussion  of  the  question,  i.,  pp. 
131— 136. 


Names  of  the  Deify.  175 

and  unfitness  of  the  Israelites  for  their  wonderful 
destination  ?"     It  is  certain  that  owing  to  the 
great  disorganization  of  the  country  during  the 
time  of  the  Judges,  the  provisions  of  the  Mosaic 
law  for  the  frequent  worship  of  Jahveh  in  com- 
mon could  not  have  been  carried  out.     May  not 
the  Hebrews  have  been  often  led  astray  by  the 
thought    that    as   the    Canaanites   round    them 
were  worshipping  El — God,  or  Baal — the  Lord, 
after  their  own  fashion,  they  too  might  honour 
the  Supreme  Deity  by  joining  in  this  worship  ? 
We  know  the  power  that  language  has  in  con- 
fusing thought  ;  as  Bacon  has  it  :  "  Words,  as  a 
Tartar's  bow,  shoot  back  upon  the  understanding 
of  the  wisest,  and  mightily  entangle  and  pervert 
the  judgment."     And   the  judgment  is  all  the 
more  readily  perverted  if  the  road  along  which 
it  is  to  be  drawn  coincides  with  that  by  which 
its  passions  would  guide  it.      The  Israelite  may 
have  been   all  the  more  willing  to  believe  that 
his   own  God   could  be  worshipped  acceptably 
under  the  name  of  Baal,  if  he  was  being  per- 
suaded at  the  same  time  by  a  Canaanitish  wife 
to  accompany  her  to  the  revels  in  which  she 
delighted. 

A  curious  confirmation  of  this  suggestion  is 


176  Religious  Influence. 

supplied  from  an  unexpected  quarter.  Two  of 
the  sons  and  one  of  the  grandsons  of  Saul  bear 
namts  ending  in  Bosheth  ;  but  Bosheth,  shame, 
is  the  word  which  the  Jews  often  used  as  a  con- 
temptuous substitute  for  Baal  ;  and  hence  we 
find  that  in  the  Chronicles — which  though  of  later 
date  than  the  Books  of  Kings  seem  to  have  pre- 
served in  this  instance  the  earlier  forms — Ish- 
bosheth  and  Mephi-bosheth  are  represented  by 
Ish-baal  and  Merib-baal.  We  do  not  find  any- 
where reason  to  believe  that  Saul  amid  all  his 
sins  fell  into  idolatry  ;  what  other  ground  then 
can  he  have  had  for  calling  his  son  Ish-baal 
"  the  man  of  the  Lord,"  if  it  were  not  that  Baal 
even  at  this  time  was  recognized  as  a  name 
which  might  be  applied  to  the  true  God  P1  The 
dangers  of  such  a  bad  use  of  the  word  was  soon 
made  evident ;  and  Hosea  at  a  later  time,  even 
when  using  the  touching  figure  (to  which  his 
own  life  lends  such  additional  pathos)  of  the 
betrothal  of  the  people  of  Israel  to  Jahveh,  will 
not  allow  them  to  use  the  common  expression  to 
a  husband,  Baali,  "  my  lord,"  but  bids  them  sub- 

1  Mr.  Grove,  in  Diet.  Bible  (s.  vv.),  cannot  explain  the 
occurrence  of  the  word  Baal  in  their  names.  The  sug- 
gestion in  the  text  is  due  to  Mr.  Sharpe,  op.  a'/.,  p.  32. 


Neglect  of  the  Mosaic  Law.  177 

stitute  Ishi,  "  my  man,"  "vir  meus"  (ii.  16,  17).     It 
is  possible  that  this  usage  of  the  name  was  limited 
to  or  at  least  most  common  in  Northern  Israel, 
where  the  appellation  Jahveh  seems  not  at  first 
to  have  been  so  commonly  used  as  in  Judah.1    At 
any  rate,  while  the  instances  of  idolatrous  worship 
in  the  Book  of  Judges  are  almost  exclusively  re- 
lated of  the  northern  tribes,  and  Judah  is  placed 
altogether  in  the  background,   perhaps  because 
it  took  but  little  share  in  the  apostasies  which 
brought    the   Divine  judgments    on   the  nation, 
the   religious  reformation  under  Samuel,  result- 
ing in  the  putting  away   of  "  the  strange  gods 
and  Ashtaroth,"2  and  the  restoration  of  the  wor- 
ship of  Jahveh  originated   rather  in  the   south. 
It  is  worth  while  noticing  another  way  in  which 
the    disregard    of    the    Mosaic    law   must   have 
paved  the  way  for  idolatry.     The  legislator  had 
not  only  attached  the  severest  penalties  to  the 
worship    of  other  gods,  but    all    customs  which 
might  even  remotely  tend  to  assimilate  the  wor- 
ship of  Jahveh  to  that  of  Baal  were  proscribed. 
The  mountain-top,  so  natural  a  place  of  devo- 
tion, was  forbidden  ground  to  the  Jew,  lest  he 

1  Sharpe,  pp.  23 — 25. 

2  1  Sam.  vii.  4. 

12 


1 7  8  Religious  Influence. 

should  be  tempted  to  join  in  the  rites  of  the 
"high  places  of  Baal."  Numerous  practices, 
even  such  as  a  peculiar  mode  of  cutting  the  hair, 
were  denounced,  and  in  every  way  a  broad  line 
of  demarcation  was  drawn  between  the  wor- 
shippers of  God  and  the  worshippers  of  idols. 
But  while  the  very  fact  that  all  these  prohibi- 
tions were  inserted  in  the  Divine  Law  shows 
the  great  importance  attaching  to  them  at  the 
time  as  preservatives,  the  indubitable  neglect  of 
this  law  during  the  period  of  the  Judges  must 
have  produced  a  disregard  of  all  such  precau- 
tions. One  suggestive  example  may  be  noticed. 
In  providing  that  all  the  males  of  the  nation 
should  assemble  thrice  in  the  year  for  the 
solemn  festivals,  the  legislator  seems  to  have 
intentionally  guarded  against  the  evils  that 
sprang  up  in  such  abundance  among  the  Canaan- 
ites  from  promiscuous  assemblages  of  both 
sexes.  And  when  we  find  the  sons  of  Eli  cor- 
rupting the  women  that  "  assembled  by  troops 
at  the  door  of  the  tabernacle  of  the  congrega- 
tion," we  see  the  wisdom  of  the  limitation.  It 
seems  very  probable  that  they  were  imitating 
the  conduct  of  the  priests  of  Ashtoreth,  or  of 
Baal-Peor,  with  whom  such  license  was  a  part 


Neglect  of  the  Mosaic  Law.  179 

of   religious    service,1  the   hpoSovXot    being    the 
invariable  attendants  of  the  cult.2 

The  reformation  of  Samuel  seems  to  have 
been  real,  deep,  and  lasting.  "  No  doubt  the  loss 
and  the  recovery  of  the  ark  would  tend  power- 
fully to  consolidate  the  disorganized  realm. 
The  tidings  of  that  awful  calamity,  the  capture 
of  the  ark,  the  seeming  abandonment  of  His 
people  by  their  God,  would  sound  like  a  knell  in 
the  heart  of  every  one  born  of  Israel.  From  the 
foot  of  Lebanon  to  the  edge  of  the  Desert,  from 
the  remotest  pastures  of  Gilead  to  the  sea-coast 
of  Asher,  the  dormant  religious  feeling  would 
be  stirred  to  its  depths.  Even  those  who  had 
furtively  cast  their  grain  of  incense  on  the  altar 
of  Baal,  or  mingled  in  the  voluptuous  dances  of 
Succoth  Benoth,3  would  be  roused  by  the  ter- 

1  Cp.  Milman,  i.,  p.  262,  and  Ewald's  Alterthiimer, 
p.  326^ 

2  But  we  must  not  fail  to  notice  that  the  way  in  which 
their  conduct  was  received  is  a  proof  that  the  morality  of 
the  nation  was  not  deeply  corrupted.  That  which  would 
have  been  accepted  as  a  matter  of  course  in  the  worship 
of  Mylitta,  shocked  the  moral  sense  of  the  Jews  when 
united  with  the  worship  of  Jahveh.  See  Movers,  i.,  pp. 
359^and  677^ 

3  This  is  apparently  an  oversight.  The  word  Succoth 
Benoth,  whether  it  be  pure  Hebrew,  denoting  "  the  tents  of 


1 80  Religions  Influence. 

rible  shock,  and  prostrate  themselves  in  peni- 
tence, if  not  in  despair.  That  universal  religious 
movement,  from  grief,  from  shame,  from  fear, 
would  be  maddened  to  tumultuous  excitement 
at  the  tidings  as  rapidly,  as  widely  spread,  of 
the  restoration  of  the  inappreciable  treasure, 
Jehovah's  rescue  of  Himself  from  the  ignomini- 
ous bondage,  His  return  in  all  His  power  and 
majesty  to  the  centre  of  the  chosen  people."1 

From  this  time  we  hear  no  more  of  the  Avor- 
ship  of  Baalim  or  Ashtaroth  in  Israel  until  the 
days  of  Solomon.  Then,  partly  no  doubt  from 
policy  (an  aspect  which  Ewald  especially  brings 
out),  partly  from  a  dangerous  latitudinananism, 
taking  the  form  of  a  desire  to  recognize  the 
germ  of  good  that  might  underlie  the  evil  in 
foreign  religions,  partly,  as  the  Scripture  nar- 
rative distinctly  asserts,  from  the  fascination  of 
"  strange  women,"  "he  went  after  Ashtoreth,  the 
goddess  of  the  Sidonians."  Then  did  Solomon 
also  build  a  high  place  for  Chemosh,  the  abomi- 

the  maidens,"  i.e.,  the  booths  devoted  to  the  unhallowed 
worship  of  Mylitta,  or  the  corrupted  name  of  a  Chaldean 
goddess,  as  Sir  H.  Rawlins  on  thinks  (Rawlinson's  Herod., 
i.,  p.  517),  does  not  occur  before  the  time  of  the  Babylonish 
settlement  in  Samaria  (2  Kings  xvii.  30). 
1  Milman,  i.,  pp.  267,  268. 


Solomon  s  Idolatry.  181 

nation  of  Moab,  and  for  Moloch,  the  abomina- 
tion of  the  Ammonites,  in  the  hill  that  is  before 
Jerusalem.  Perhaps  we  may  accept  the  opinion  of 
Ewald,1  supported  by  many  forcible  arguments, 
that  Solomon  did  not  himself  fall  into  idolatry, 
but  only  sanctioned  the  hereditary  worship  of 
his  Sidonian,  Ammonite,  and  Moabite  wives. 
And  Dean  Milman2  has  well  reminded  us  that 
the  extent  of  Solomon's  empire  enforced  either 
toleration  or  internecine  persecution.  "When 
the  king  of  the  Jews  became  king  of  a  great 
eastern  empire,  he  had  no  course  but  to  tolerate 
the  religion  of  his  non-Jewish  subjects,  or  to  ex- 
terminate them."  But  to  a  nation  at  this  time 
in  such  intimate  commercial  relations  with 
Phoenicia,  and  predisposed  by  the  growing 
luxury  to  a  more  sensual  worship  than  that  of 
Jahveh,  even  the  royal  tolerance  must  have 
acted  as  a  powerful  impulse.  With  Tyrian 
merchants  settled  in  their  midst,  and  furnishing 
constant  temptations  to  sin,  the  downward  path 
was  already  too  easy  for  them  ;  and  the  worship 
of  Ashtoreth  seems  to  have  been  never  rooted 
out  of  the  land,  until  the  days  of  Josiah. 

The   worship   of  the  golden    calf  at   Bethel, 
1  iii.,  pp.  ioo,  ioi.  2  L,  p.  327,  note. 


1 82  Religious  Influence, 

whether  intended  as  a  relapse  into  the  worship 
of  Elohim  as  distinguished  from  Jahveh,  or 
more  probably  merely  a  symbolic  representa- 
tion of  the  national  God,  seems  to  have  owed 
nothing  to  Phoenician  influence,  but  rather  to 
have  been  drawn  from  Egypt,  where  Jeroboam 
had  for  a  time  resided.  But  the  name  of  the 
city  calls  our  attention  to  one  of  the  most 
ancient  and  obscure  cults  of  Canaan.  In 
Phoenicia,  and  therefore  probably  in  the  sur- 
rounding tribes,  a  common  object  of  worship 
was  the  baetyl  or  upright  stone,  such  as  that 
described  by  Tacitus1  as  found  in  the  temple  of 
the  Paphian  Venus  :  "  simulacrum  Deae  non 
effigie  humana,  continuus  orbis  latiore  initio 
tenuem  in  ambitum,  metae  modo,  exsurgens." 
Movers2  has  collected  many  references  to  such 
pillar-like  erections  ;  and  it  is  hard  to  resist  his 
argument  that  these,  like  the  wooden  columns  of 
the  Asherah,  had  originally  a  phallic  character. 
It  is  probable  then  that  Bethel,  as  the  seat  of 
this  rude  and  primitive  worship,3  retained  a  kind 

1  Hist,  ii.,  3. 

2  i->  PP-  673—675,  cp.  567—572,  593—597. 

3  The  older  etymologers,  e.g.,  Spencer,  "de  Legg. 
Hebr.,"  444,  and  Bochart,  "  Canaan,"  ii.,  2,  were  inclined 
to  derive  the  word  j3aiTu\ioj>  from  "  Bethel,"  as  being  the 


Worship  of  the  Golden  C a  roes.        183 

of  sacred  reputation,  which  made  it  the  object 
of  the  choice  of  Jeroboam,  as  one  of  the  reli- 
gious centres  of  the  northern  kingdom.  But  the 
prophets  of  the  golden  calves  still  called  them- 
selves the  prophets  of  Jahveh,1  and  the  national 
apostasy  only  began  really  with  the  house  of 
Omri.  There  are  several  reasons  for  believing 
that  he  it  was,  rather  than  his  son  Ahab,  who 
was  the  first  of  the  kings  of  Israel  to  give  his 
support  to  the  worship  of  Baal.  He  appears  to 
have  been  an  active,  energetic  king,  and  to  have 
formed  alliances  with  the  neighbouring  nations, 
one  result  of  which  was  the  free  admission  of 
their  subjects  into  his  new  capital,  for  "he  made 
streets "  for  the  Tyrians  in  Samaria.  And  he 
seems  to  have  been  responsible  for  the  marriage 
of  his  son  with  the  Tyrian  Jezebel,  which  was 
soon  to  be  so  fatal  to  the  national  religion. 
Hence  it  is  that  Micah  (vi.  16)  mentions  among 
the  sins  of  the  children  of  Israel,  that  "  the 
statutes  of  Omri  were  strictly  kept,  and  all  the 
work  of  the  house  of  Ahab."     The  political  cir- 

name  of  the  place  where  the  most  famous  sacred  stone 
was  found  ;  and  Mr.  Grove  ("  Diet.  Bible,"  i.,  p.  igSa)  does 
not  reject  the  derivation.     Cp.  Mr.  W.  A.  Wright's  article 
on  "  Idols  "  {id.,  p.  850*2). 
1  See  Ewald,  hi.,  p.  155. 


184  Religious  In/licence. 

cumstances  of  the  time,  which  made  a  Tyrian 
alliance  attractive,  have  been  already  referred 
to.1 

But  it  was  mainly  to  Jezebel  that  the  formal 
introduction  of  the  worship  of  Baal  was  due. 
The  many  causes  that  combined  to  help  this 
on  had  hitherto  been  at  least  partially  counter- 
acted by  the  zeal  and  energy  of  the  prophetic 
order,  who  were  devoted  to  the  worship  of 
Jahveh.  But  now  these  were  fiercely  perse- 
cuted ;  and  the  boundless  influence  of  the  queen 
over  her  weak  but  sometimes  well-meaning  hus- 
band, swept  away  all  open  resistance.  Only 
those  prophets  who  were  hidden  away  from  her 
fury  escaped  ;  and  her  national  religion  was 
established  in  the  land  of  Jahveh.  A  temple  of 
great  magnificence  was  built  in  honour  of  Baal, 
where  four  hundred  priests  served  his  shrine  ; 
and  an  oracular  grove  was  erected  to  Ashtoreth,2 
where  besides  the  four  hundred  and  fifty  pro- 
phets of  the  grove  that  fed  at  Jezebel's  table, 
there  were  undoubtedly  many  of  the  kede- 
shoth,  of  whom  we  read  in  the  later  prophets.3 

1  See  p.  67. 

2  Ewald,  iii.,  p.  172. 

8  Hosea  iv.    14;    cp.  Gen.  xxxviii.  21,  22,  and  Deut. 
xxiii.  17. 


Jezebel.  185 

The  extent  to  which  this  worship  was  adopted 
by  the  nation  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  there 
were  only  seven  thousand  in  Israel,  knees  which 
had  not  bowed  to  Baal,  and  lips  which  had  not 
kissed  him. 

The  display  of  Divine  power  on  Carmel,  con- 
trasted with  the  wild  but  futile  efforts  of  the 
priests  of  the  Tyrian  deities  to  call  forth  a 
response  from  the  objects  of  their  worship, 
aroused  for  the  time  an  enthusiasm  for  the  God 
of  Israel.  But  it  seems  to  have  exhausted  itself 
in  the  vengeance  taken  on  the  foreign  priests, 
and  Elijah  felt  that  there  was  no  strong  national 
feeling  upon  which  he  could  rely  to  protect  him 
against  the  revenge  of  the  furious  queen.  He 
fled  into  the  desert,  there  to  lay  him  down  and 
die.  But  his  work,  like  all  true  work  for  God, 
was  not  destined  to  perish  unavailingly,  though 
he  might  not  see  the  fruit  of  it.  We  cannot 
but  believe  that  the  memory  of  the  grand  old 
prophet,  of  his  words  of  bitter  scorn  and  bold 
defiance,  served  as  a  powerful  assistance  to  Jehu 
in  his  work  of  reformation.  He  would  hardly 
have  ventured,  even  by  an  act  of  treachery,  to 
deal  such  terrible  retribution  upon  the  worship- 
pers   of  Baal,   had  he  not  felt   assured   of  the 


1 86  Religious  Influence, 

support,  or  at  least  the  indifference,  of  a  great 
body  of  the  nation.  At  the  same  time  the  very 
fact  that  at  the  critical  point  of  his  usurpation 
he  was  not  afraid  to  give  himself  out  as  a 
worshipper  of  Baal,  even  with  his  hostile  object, 
shows  that  the  indignation  against  the  foreign 
deities  cannot  have  been  really  strong.  Dean 
Stanley  is  merely  speaking  somewhat  loosely, 
when  he  says  that  "  a  sweeping  massacre  re- 
moved at  one  blow  the  whole  heathen  popu- 
lation of  Israel." x  We  cannot  suppose  that 
anything  like  all  those  who  worshipped  Baal, 
or  even  all  who  were  fanatically  devoted  to  his 
worship,  were  to  be  found  at  one  time  within  his 
courts,  even  on  a  solemn  occasion.  It  is  much 
more  probable  that  from  this  time  there  was 
a  constant  internal  conflict  in  the  kingdom  of 
Israel  between  the  two  religions.  Perhaps  we 
ought  rather  to  say  the  three  religions ;  for  while 
we  find  a  constant  succession  of  prophets  uphold- 
ing the  purity  of  the  worship  of  Jahveh,  and  learn 
from  the  writings  of  such  as  have  remained  to 
us  that  many  of  the  people  were  still  devoted  to 
Baal,  the  court  appears  to  have  held  to  what 
may  be  called  the  State  religion,  the  worship  of 
1  Diet.  Bible,  i.,  p.  961^. 


Jeh it  s  Reformation .  187 

the  Golden  Calf.  All  three  forms  are  brought 
before  us  in  a  passage  from  our  great  authority 
on  this  period,  the  prophet  Hosea  : x  "  When 
Ephraim  spake  there  was  trembling ;  he  exalted 
himself  in  Israel ;  but  he  offended  in  Baal,  and 
died  :  and  now  they  go  on  to  sin,  and  make 
for  themselves  molten  images,  idols  of  silver, 
according  to  their  skill ;  all  of  them  the  work 
of  artificers  ;  the  men  that  sacrifice  say  of  them, 
let  them  kiss  the  calves ;  .  .  .  yet  I,  Jahveh, 
have  been  thy  God  from  the  land  of  Egypt,  thou 
knewest  no  God  beside  me  ;  nor  was  there  any 
Saviour  beside  me." 

On  the  whole,  the  language  of  the  prophets 
compels  us  to  believe  in  a  constantly  increasing 
degradation  of  the  nation.  It  would  be  impos- 
sible to  find  words  to  express  more  forcibly  the 
utter  corruption  of  the  northern  tribes,  and, 
saddest  sign  of  all,  the  shameless  impurity  of 
the  women,  than  the  words  that  are  used  by 
Amos  and  Hosea.  We  need  not  dwell  upon 
them  ;  it  is  enough  to  notice  that  in  every  case 
the  evil  is  traced  directly  to  the  debasing  wor- 
ship of  the  idols,  which  intercourse  with  Phoe- 
nicia had  brought  among  them.     "  They  left  the 

1  xiii.  1,  2,  4. 


1 88  Religious  Influence. 

commandments  of  the  Lord  their  God,  and 
made  them  molten  images,  even  two  calves,  and 
made  a  grove,  and  worshipped  all  the  host  of 
heaven  and  served  Baal,  .  .  .  and  they  followed 
vanity  and  became  vain,  and  went  after  the 
heathen  that  were  round  about  them,  concern- 
ing whom  the  Lord  had  charged  them  that  they 

should  not  do  like  them Therefore  the 

Lord  was  very  angry  with  Israel,  and  removed 
them  out  of  His  sight :  there  was  none  left  but 
the  tribe  of  Judah  only." 

And  Judah  was  drawn  along  the  same  fatal 
path,  by  the  same  evil  influences.  We  have 
seen  how  Tyrian  traders  and  Tyrian  settlers 
paved  the  way  for  the  adoption  of  their  national 
religion.  After  the  influence  of  one  of  their 
own  princesses  had  procured  the  erection  of  a 
"grove;"  or  rather  an  idolatrous  symbol  for 
Ashtoreth,  it  was  probably  the  Tyrian  colony  in 
Jerusalem  that  supplied  the  most  constant  wor- 
shippers there,  and  Tyrian  women  that  led  the 
Jews  into  a  participation  in  its  unholy  rites.  At 
the  very  commencement  of  the  kingdom  of 
Judah,  the  great  internal  struggle  begins  which 
forms  the  principal  element  of  interest  through- 
out its  subsequent  history.     On    the   one   side 


Tyrian  Influence  in  Judah.  1 89 

was  the  Temple  with  its  unrivalled  splendour  and 
glorious  associations.  Round  it  gathered  the 
Aaronic  priesthood,  who  assume  fresh  import- 
ance with  the  concentration  of  the  national  life 
in  the  southern  kingdom.  At  a  later  date 
their  spiritual  pride  and  formalism  made  them 
the  bitterest  foes  of  the  truly  inspired  prophets. 
But  at  this  time  the  priests  and  the  prophets 
were  contending  side  by  side  for  the  honour  of 
Jahveh.  Opposed  to  them  was  the  party  of  the 
court,  led  by  one  of  those  commanding  and 
resolute  women  that  play  so  prominent  a  part 
in  Jewish  history.  Maachah,  the  granddaughter 
of  Absalom,  seems  to  have  been  gifted  with  all 
the  fascinating  beauty  of  David's  favourite  son, 
and  to  have  exercised  an  irresistible  influence 
over  her  husband  Rehoboam  and  her  son  Abijah, 
at  whose  court  she  retained  the  position  of 
queen-mother.  And  mainly  by  her  influence 
"  Judah  did  evil  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord  ;  for 
they  built  them  high  places  and  images  and 
groves  on  every  high  hill  and  under  every 
green  tree  ;  and  they  did  according  to  all  the 
abominations  of  the  nations  which  the  Lord  cast 
out  before  the  children  of  Israel."  We  have 
here  all  the  usual  phrases  to  denote  a  revival  of 


190  Religions  Influence. 

the  worship  of  Asht'oreth  ;  and  we  are  expressly 
told1  that  the  darkest  features  of  that  worship 
were  not  wanting  ;  that  the  unhallowed  conse- 
cration of  men  and  women  to  the  service  of  the 
goddess  was  practised.  The  corruption  was 
checked  for  the  time  by  the  vigour  of  Asa,  who 
destroyed  the  private  sanctuary  of  Maachah, 
burnt  the  obscene  image  to  which  her  worship 
was  offered,  and  "  her  he  removed  from  being 
queen."  The  victory  was  for  the  time  with 
the  priests  and  the  prophets  of  the  Lord.  But 
the  alliance  with  the  northern  kingdom,  which 
brought  prosperity  to  Jehoshaphat,  was  des- 
tined to  have  the  most  fatal  effects  upon  his 
country.  The  good  that  he  had  done  by  carry- 
ing on  the  religious  reaction  of  Asa,  and  adding 
to  it  a  zeal  for  promoting  among  his  people  a 
knowledge  of  "  the  Book  of  the  Law,"  was  more 
than  counterbalanced  by  the  marriage  of  his 
son  Jehoram  with  Athaliah,  the  daughter  of 
Ahab  and  Jezebel.  Even  in  her  husband's  reign 
she  had   succeeded  in  restonng  the  worship  of 

1  1   Kings  xiv.  24. 

2  The  word  employed  in  1  Kings  xv.  13,  and  2  Chron. 
xv.  16,  means  properly  "  fright,"  "horror,"  and  was  un- 
doubtedly an  Asherah.  Cp.  Diet.  Bible,  i.,  p.  849^7,  and 
Movers,  i.,  p.  571. 


AtJialiah.  191 

Baal  ; 1 — we  can  hardly  suppose  that  it  was  then 
introduced  for  the  first  time,  though  we  have 
not  previously  any  explicit  mention  of  it ;  for  it 
seems  an  inseparable  concomitant  of  the  worship 
of  Ashtoreth.  But  her  evil  energies  were  roused 
to  the  utmost  by  the  slaughter  of  her  son 
Ahaziah  by  Jehu,  and  the  subsequent  massacre 
of  the  worshippers  of  Baal  at  Samaria.  Suc- 
cessive calamities  had  almost  exhausted  the 
family  of  David,  and  now  "when  Athaliah 
saw  that  Ahaziah  was  dead,  she  arose  and  de- 
stroyed all  the  seed-royal."  One  alone  escaped, 
and  he  but  an  infant.  Then  "  the  worship  of 
Baal,  uprooted  by  Jehu  in  Samaria,  sprang  up 
with  renewed  vigour  in  Jerusalem.  The  adhe- 
rents of  Baal,  exiled  from  the  northern  kingdom, 
no  doubt  took  refuge  in  the  south.  The  temple 
became  a  quarry  for  the  rival  sanctuary.  The 
stones  and  sacred  vessels  were  employed  to 
build  or  to  adorn  the  temple  of  Baal,  which 
rose,  as  it  would  seem,  even  within  the  temple 
precincts."2  But  the  queen  does  not  appear  to 
have  felt  herself  strong    enough   to    crush    the 

1  See  2  Chron.  xxi.  11,  13. 

2  Stanley,  ii.,  p.  394  ;    2  Kings  xi.'  18  ;    2  Chron.  xxiii. 
17,  18. 


1 92  Religious  Influence. 

worship  of  Jahveh,  which  went  on  side  by  side 
with  the  rites  of  the  pagan  sanctuary. 

No  scene  in  the  sacred  history  is  more 
dramatic,  and  few  more  familiar,  than  that  in 
which  the  chief  priest  Jehoiada  overthrew  the 
usurping  idolatress,  and  restored  at  once  the 
rightful  heir  and  the  true  religion.  The  writer 
of  the  Book  of  Chronicles  (probably  himself  a 
priest)1  takes  great  delight  in  recording  the  zeal 
and  eladness  with  which  the  house  of  God  was 
restored,  which  "the  sons  of  Athaliah,  that 
wicked  woman,  had  broken  up,"  and  the  dedi- 
cated things  of  the  house  of  the  Lord  replaced, 
which  they  had  bestowed  upon  Baalim.2  But 
soon  the  brightness  was  clouded  over  again. 
On  the  death  of  the  aged  Jehoiada,  the  king 
"  hearkened  unto  the  princes  of  Judah/'  who 
always  appear  as  the  leaders  of  the  idolatrous 
party  opposed  to  the  priests  and  the  prophets. 

i  See  Milman's  note  (L,  p.  328).  The  majority  of  com- 
mentators accept  the  constant  tradition  of  the  J  ews,  that 
the  work  was  compiled  by  Ezra. 

2  2  Chron.  xxiv.  7. 

3  2  Chron.  xxiv.  17.  Some  part  of  the  evil  may  have 
been  due  to  the  influence  of  the  king's  mother,  Zibiah  of 
Beersheba,  a  place  noted  at  this  time  for  its  idolatry 
(Amos  viii.  14). 


The  Princes  of  Judali.  193 

It  is  natural  that  those  who  were  brought  most 
into  contact  with  the  Tyrian  merchants,  and 
who  had  been  most  deeply  tainted  by  the  cor- 
ruptions of  what  was  practically  a  Tyrian  court 
under  Athaliah,  should  be  most  zealous  in  the 
service  of  the  Tyrian  deities.  "And  they  left 
the  house  of  Jahveh,  God  of  their  fathers,  and 
served  Asherah  and  idols.  Yet  sent  he  prophets 
to  them  to  bring  them  again  unto  Jahveh,  and 
they  testified  against  them  ;  but  they  would  not 
give  ear." 

With  the  death  of  Athaliah  the  direct  influ- 
ence of  Tyre  on  Judah  had  ceased.  But  we 
cannot  doubt  that  very  much  indirect  influence 
still  continued  to  be  exerted,  through  the 
agencies  to  which  we  have  often  referred.  An 
incidental  expression  in  Isaiah  (ii.  16)  shows  us 
that  the  commerce  of  Uzziah  still  loaded  the 
ships  of  Tarshish  with  articles  of  costly  and 
beautiful  merchandize.1  But  his  own  name  ("the 
help  of  Jahveh,"  or  in  the  form  Azariah,  "  the 
strength  of  Jahveh/')  shows  that  he  had  not  for- 
saken the  national  God.  And  the  reference  in 
the  prophet  of  the  time — Amos2 — to  the  kid- 
napping incursions  of  the  Tynans,  shows  that 
Stanley,  ii.,  p.  435.  2  i.;  9. 

13 


i  g4  Religious  Influence, 

there  can  have  been  no  close  alliance  or  friend- 
ship between  the  two  nations.  This  is  further 
confirmed  by  the  fact  that  his  reign  appears 
to  be  a  period  of  the  great  predominance  of  the 
priesthood,  and  the  increased  magnificence  of 
the  temple  service.  We  may  notice  also  that 
Amos,  though  belonging  to  the  southern  king- 
dom, went  into  the  land  of  Israel  to  deliver  his 
prophecies,  and  seems  to  have  felt  that  there 
was  much  less  need  for  his  indignant  invectives 
in  the  kingdom  of  Judah. 

But  the  priests  soon  fell  before  the  temptation 
that  everywhere  besets  the  professors  of  a  domi- 
nant creed  ;  and  a  religion  which  had  become 
little  better  than  a  formal  sham  was  unable  to 
hold  its  own  against  the  seductions  of  a  sensual 
idolatry  which  appealed  with  so  much  force  to 
the  vicious  and  luxurious  nobles.  The  accession 
of  Ahaz  marks  the  commencement  of  a  new 
period  of  declension.  His  father  Jotham  had  done 
that  which  was  right  in  the  sight  of  Jahveh, 
though  under  his  reign  the  people  yet  did  cor- 
ruptly, and  offered  incense  in  the  high  places 
or  consecrated  mounds,1  which  might  be  some- 
times   even    in   valleys    (Jer.    xvii.    21)    or    in 

1  Cp.  Movers,  i.,  p.  675. 


Ahaz.  195 

the  streets  of  Jerusalem  (2  Kings  xvii.  9, 
Ezek.  xvi.  31),  and  on  which  an  irregular 
worship  was  offered,  sometimes  to  Jahveh,  at 
other  times  to  heathen  deities.  But  Ahaz 
"  made  molten  images  for  Baalim,  and  burnt 
his  children  in  the  fire,  after  the  abominations  of 
the  heathen  whom  Jahveh  had  cast  out  before 
the  children  of  Israel.  He  sacrificed  also  and 
burnt  incense  in  the  high  places,  and  on  the 
hills,  and  under  every  green  tree."1  What  is 
implied  in  the  latter  is  shown  but  too  plainly  by 
the  words  of  Hosea  (iv.  13).  These  and  similar 
phrases  point  to  the  influence  of  the  old  Canaan- 
itish  and  therefore  Phoenician  idolatry ;  but 
Ahaz  personally  seems  to  have  been  rather 
devoted  to  foreign  religious  practices,  to  the 
ritual  of  the  gods  of  Damascus,  and  the  wizard- 
ries of  the  remoter  East.2  His  reign  is  one  of 
the  darkest  passages. in  the  history  of  Judah  ;  it 
is  succeeded  by  a  brightness  as  of  the  Indian 
summer  before  the  gloom  of  winter  settles  on 
the  land,  or  the  glory  of  the  setting  sun,  that 


1  2  Chron.  xxviii.  2 — 4. 

2  Movers  (i.,  pp.  65,  66)  maintains  that  Ahaz  adopted 
the  purer  Magian  star-worship,  as  contrasted  with  the 
corrupt  Phoenician  cult.     See  above,  p.  171. 


196  Religions  Influence. 

after  a  day  of  clouds  and  storm  illumines  the 
world  for  a  transient  while  before  it  sinks  into 
the  shades  of  night.  At  the  stern  rebuke  of  the 
prophet  Micah,1  the  king  Hezekiah  and  the 
nation  were  awakened  to  a  sense  of  their  sinful 
apostasy.  A  vast  sacrifice  was  offered  in  expia- 
tion of  the  national  guilt.  "  And  Hezekiah  spake 
unto  the  heart 2  of  all  the  Levites  that  taught 
the  good  knowledge  of  the  Lord,  and  they 
did  eat  throughout  the  feast  seven  days, 
offering  peace  offerings  and  making  confes- 
sion unto  Jahveh,  God  of  their  fathers.  .  .  . 
So  there  was  great  joy  in  Jerusalem  ;  for  since 
the  time  of  Solomon  the  son  of  David,  king  of 
Israel,  there  was  not  the  like  in  Jerusalem." 
The  "  high  places,"  that  had  formed  so  easy  a 
transition  to  pagan  worship,  and  the  brazen 
serpent,  that  appeared  to  link  the  worship  of 
Jahveh  on  to  one  of  the  most  widely  extended 
of  heathen  superstitions,3  were  alike  destroyed  ; 
"  the  uprooting  of  those  delightful  shades,  the 
levelling  of  those  consecrated  altars,  the  destruc- 

1  The  scene  is  graphically  described  in  Stanley's  Lec- 
tures, ii.,  pp.  463 — 465. 

2  So  the  Hebrew  in  2  Chron.  xxx.  22,  26. 

3  Cp.  Cox,  "Aryan  Mythology,"  ii.,  p.  116. 


Hezekialis  Reforms.  197 

tion  of  that  mysterious  figure,  which  Moses  had 
made  in  the  wilderness,  must  have  been  a 
severe  shock  to  the  religious  feelings  of  the 
nation."1  But  they  were  one  and  all  fatal  lures 
to  lead  them  into  the  unhallowed  worship  of 
Phoenicia,2  and  therefore  the  king  destroyed 
them.  The  terrible  reaction  under  his  youthful 
son  Manasseh  is  to  be  ascribed  directly  to  the 
influence  of  the  "party  of  the  princes,"  and  we 
cannot  trace  Phoenician  influence  in  it,  except  so 
far  as,  according  to  a  remark  made  above,  the 
nobles  were  those  peculiarly  liable  to  be  affected 
by  the  opinions  and  practices  of  wealthy  foreign 
merchants.  It  is  more  just  to  say  that  the  evil 
leaven,  once  introduced  by  the  example  of  the 
Canaanites  within  the  borders,  and  their  power- 
ful maritime  kinsfolk,  had  never  ceased  to  work 
among  those  classes,  where  it  found  its  most 
congenial  matter. 

Once  again  the  abominable  rites  of  Astarte 
were  practised  even  within  the  sacred  precincts;3 
the  houses  of  her  devotees  were  hard  by  the 
house  of  the  Lord,  and  in  them  the  women  wove 

1  Stanley,  ii.,  p.  467. 

2  Cp.  Movers,  i.,  pp.  560 — 577. 
8  2  Kings  xxi.  5 — 7. 


198  Religious  Influence. 

decorated  hangings  for  the  emblem  under  which 
she  was  worshipped.  Now  for  the  first  time  in 
Judah  a  terrible  persecution  was  directed  against 
the  worshippers  of  Jahveh,  and  the  voices  of  the 
prophets  were  silenced.  The  suicidal  attempt 
was  but  too  successful  ;  the  after-reformation  of 
Josiah,  though  carried  out  with  an  earnestness, 
a  thoroughness,  we  may  almost  add  a  bitterness, 
to  which  we  find  no  earlier  parallel,  came  too 
late  to  root  out  the  growing  corruption  of  the 
nation.  "  Large  as  is  the  space  occupied  by  it 
in  the  historical  books,  by  the  contemporary 
prophets  it  is  never  mentioned  at  all."1  The 
national  worship  of  Jahveh  had  been  crushed 
out  of  the  land,  or  had  withered  in  the  presence 
of  more  alluring  idolatries  ;  but  with  its  extinc- 
tion the  national  life  had  been  paralyzed  at  the 
heart ;  the  Jews  had  lost  their  raison  d'etre  for 
independent  national  existence  ;  and  the  opera- 
tion of  the  natural  laws  of  history,  which  are 
indeed  but  the  execution  on  earth  of  the  judg- 
ments of  God,  rendered  their  captivity  in- 
evitable. 

We   have   thus   traced,    rapidly   and    incom- 
pletely,   but  with  details  perhaps  sufficient  for 

1  Stanley,  ii.,  p.  503. 


The  Captivity.  199 

our  present  purpose,  the  history  of  the  lapse 
into  idolatry  on  the  part  of  the  children  of 
Israel.  So  far  as  it  needs  any  other  explana- 
tion than  that  which  is  furnished  by  the  attrac- 
tion of  a  sensuous  faith  and  a  licentious  practice 
upon  the  mass  of  mankind,  this  is  supplied,  we 
believe,  by  the  action  of  Phoenician  influence 
from  without,  strongly  supported  by  the  ex- 
ample of  the  incorporated  Canaanites,  and 
sometimes  roused  into  greater  activity  by  special 
political  circumstances. 

But  here  again  the  question  presents  itself  to 
us,  Is  there  not  another  and  a  brighter  side  to 
the  picture  ?  Can  we  believe  that  the  Shepherd 
and  Guide  of  His  chosen  people  placed  them  in 
a  position  where  they  would  be  exposed  to  the 
strongest  temptations,  from  which  nothing  but 
evil  could  result  ? — that  no  rich  blessing  was 
intended  to  the  world  by  all  these  centuries  of 
trial  and  discipline  ?  I  think  that  several  con- 
siderations may  be  found,  to  help  us  in  seeing 
this  matter  aright.  In  the  first  place,  the  nature 
of  the  Phoenician  religion  was  in  itself  a  safe- 
guard. Much  more  might  have  been  said,  per- 
haps in  some  places  ought  to  have  been  said, 
that  has  intentionally  been  passed  over,  about 


2 CO  Religious  Influence. 

the  corrupting  and  degrading  character  of  the 
worship  and  its  votaries.  But  while  these  cha- 
racteristics only  enhanced  its  attractions  among 
the  masses,  especially  of  the  wealthy  and  luxu- 
rious, there  must  have  been  in  every  generation 
many  pure  and  noble  spirits  to  whom  they 
caused  invincible  repugnance.  We  may  say 
with  reverence  that  it  was  of  vital  importance  to 
the  Divine  scheme  of  the  education  of  the  race 
that  a  firm  and  hereditary  belief  in  the  One 
Living  and  True  God  should  be  maintained,  at 
least  in  one  selected  people.  We  see  from  the 
religious  history  of  Greece  and  Rome  how  im- 
possible it  was  for  any  such  belief  to  gain  firm 
hold  of  the  mind  of  a  nation  when  supported 
only  by  the  speculations  of  philosophers.  Plato's 
Idea  of  the  Beautiful,  or  the  Stoic's  pantheistic 
conception  of  the  all-pervading  world-spirit,  was 
an  utterly  inadequate  substitute  for  "the  Lord 
God  of  our  fathers"  of  the  Israelite.  But  let  us 
conceive,  if  we  can,  of  Athens  standing  to  the 
kingdom  of  Israel  in  the  relation  that  Tyre 
actually  occupied.  Let  us  fancy  the  brutal 
worship  of  Baal-Moloch,  the  wild  orgies  of 
Ashtoreth,  replaced  by  hymns  to  Apollo,  the 
glorious  god   of  light,  such  as  that  chanted  as 


General  Results.  201 

his  morning  paean  by  Ion  ; x  by  the  praises  that 
Cleanthes  taught  his  countrymen  to  offer  to 
Zeus,  "  the  almighty  one  from  everlasting,  of 
whom  we  are  the  offspring;"  and  by  the  Homeric 
stories  of  Athena,  the  ever-maiden  goddess  of 
wisdom,  helper  of  heroes  in  fair  and  noble  deeds 
of  daring.  Can  we  not  readily  believe  that  under 
the  charms  of  a  mythology  such  as  this,  not 
only  the  lowest,  but  even  the  highest  spirits  of 
the  nation,  might  have  been  led  astray  from  the 
faith  of  their  fathers?  And  when  the  process 
of  decay,  of  misconception,  of  fouler  aftergrowth 
of  legend  had  begun,  where  would  then  have 
been  the  spring  of  living  water  which,  choked 
for  a  while,  and  all  but  hidden  among  the 
Jews,  had  never  been  entirely  dried,  but  which 
when  the  appointed  time  had  come,  and  its 
fountains  were  unsealed  and  purified  by  the 
Incarnate  Lord,  broke  forth  once  more  for  the 
healing  of  the  nations  ? 

Again,  we  must  remember  that  the  part  which 
a  nation  plays  in  the  development  of  the  great 
world's  life,  depends  far  more  upon  the  height 
to  which  its  most  exalted  spirits  rise,  than  upon 
the  depths  to  which  the  mass  of  its  members 
1  Cp.  Eur.  Ion,  82 — 153. 


202  Religious  Influence. 

sometimes  sink.  It  matters  very  little  to  us 
n6w,  except  as  a  warning  (and  '  such  are  sadly 
plentiful),  that  the  princes  of  Judah  in  the  days 
of  Manasseh  gave  themselves  up  to  work  all 
manner  of  evil ;  but  the  Church  throughout  all 
time  has  been  and  will  be  unspeakably  the 
richer  for  the  visions  that  in  the  darkness,  and 
surely  also  through  the  darkness,  were  given  to 
the  aged  prophet.  Phoenicia  and  Canaan,  Baal 
and  Ashtoreth,  had  done  their  worst,  and  with 
terrible  success,  to  blind  the  eyes  of  the  bulk  of 
the  nation  to  truth  and  goodness,  when  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  spoke  in  the  words  of  Isaiah 
the  promises  that  have  been  the  stay  of  His 
people  ever  since. 

The  Aryan  nations,  as  M.  Pictet  well  ex- 
presses it,1  in  presence,  not  of  error,  but  only 
of  nature,  held  their  primitive  monotheism  but 
loosely,  and  under  the  influence  of  a  language  of 
boundless  fertility,  that  lent  itself  readily  to  the 
development  of  myths,  this  soon  was  changed 
in  every  instance  into  a  constantly  degenerating 
polytheism.  But  the  storms  of  fierce  tempta- 
tion that  assailed  the  Hebrews  on  every  side 
acted  on  their  faith,  as  the  national  discipline 
1  Les  Origines  Indo-Europdennes,  ii.,  p.  710. 


Conclusion.  203 

acted  on  the  children  of  Sparta  :  the  feeble  and 
sickly  perished,  but  those  who  endured  to  tfre 
end  were  made  into  models  of  healthful  and 
vigorous  manhood.  Monotheism  among  the 
Jews  attained  to  a  strength  of  grasp  upon  the 
national  conscience,  a  depth  of  sure  conviction 
that  is  only  given  to  truth  that  has  wrestled  in 
a  long  stern  struggle  with  error.  "  A  fugitive 
and  cloistered  virtue,  unexercised  and  un- 
breathed,  that  never  sallies  out  and  sees  her 
adversary,  but  slinks  out  of  the  race,  where  that 
immortal  garland  is  to  be  run  for,  not  without 
dust  and  heat,"  will  never  work  any  great  de- 
liverance, be  it  in  man  or  in  nation.  "  That 
virtue  which  is  but  a  youngling  in  the  contem- 
plation of  evil,  and  knows  not  the  utmost  that 
vice  promises  to  her  followers,  and  rejects  it,  is 
but  a  blank  virtue,  not  a  pure  ;  her  whiteness  is 
but  an  excremental  whiteness." x  The  faith  of 
the  later  Hebrews  in  the  Unity  of  the  Godhead 
was  no  mere  product  of  "  a  religious  instinct," 
no  fragile  fancy  of  prophet  or  poet  : — 

But  iron  dug  from  central  gloom, 
And  heated  hot  with  burning  fears, 
And  dipt  in  baths  of  hissing  tears, 

1  Milton,  "  Areopagitica." 


204  Conclusion, 

And  battered  with  the  shocks  of  doom, 
To  shape  and  use. 

And  if,  as  Mr.  Gladstone  has  nobly  said,  "  the 
history  of  the  race  of  Adam  before  the  Advent 
is  the  history  of  a  long  and  varied  but  incessant 
preparation  for  the  Advent,"  we  cannot  fail  to 
recognize  in  the  powerful  influence  of  Phoenicia 
on  the  eastern  as  well  as  the  western  world 
one  great  element  in  that  preparation.  Here 
too  the  eye  of  faith  will  recognize  one  of  the 
"  diverse  parts  and  diverse  manners "  in  which 
a  wisdom,  sometimes  far  beyond  our  ken,  but 
always  in  its  own  good  way,  was  laying  deep 
and  sure  the  foundations  of  the  Everlasting 
City  of  God. 

V      OF  T 

UNiVER^ 

FINIS. 


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The  Light  of  the  World  :   an  Essay  on  the 

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Pagan  Ethics. 

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'&■■ 


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(( 


vv 


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